Impact of Tourism in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Sheikh Saleh Ahammed

2010

Master in Public Policy and Governance Program

Department of General and Continuing Education
North South University, Bangladesh

i 
 
 To Shapla for travelling with me and

To Arnob & Pritha for giving me reasons to stay put.

ii 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

When I embarked on my ‘master’s journey’, I decided that, although being the first, this would be the
very last page of the thesis that I would write. Over the months, writing the acknowledgements has
become a symbol for being very close to achieving one of the greatest goals of my life. Hence, it is with
immense relief and a hint of sadness that I realize that I have come to the end of my journey. I have
reached this particular destination and learnt a lot in the process, not least, about how complex tourism
development is and what impact it leaves on. In this spirit of reflection, I would like to take the
opportunity to thank some important travelling companions who have helped me along the way. Although
I am solely responsible for its contents, the completion of this thesis paper would not have been possible
without support from a number of persons to whom I am deeply indebted.

First, I want to express my gratitude to the people of Cox’s Bazar town and its sub-urban areas who have
taken time to enlighten me on the issues covered in this dissertation. Without your participation in the
interviews, help with practical matters, generosity and friendship this thesis would never have
materialized.

I am also grateful to Dr Salahuddin Aminuzzaman and Dr Tawfique at the Master of Public Policy and
Governance (MPPG) Program at North South University in Dhaka for inviting me to present my ideas at
the early stage in the process and for taking utmost care and patient hearing to my queries and keeping me
on the track to complete the paper successfully. At North South University’s General and Continuing
Education Department, a number of persons have supported my interest in tourism and development.

Dr Niaz Ahmed Khan has done an extraordinary job in supervising me from the very beginning of this
research. I am deeply thankful for your great patience, diplomatic skills, and seemingly unlimited
knowledge. Thank you for always (at least pretending to) believing in me and encouraging (almost) all
my different ideas and positions throughout these months despite your utmost business as Country
Representative of IUCN Bangladesh.

As per direction of Dr Salahuddin Aminuzzaman sir, to complete the research work, with due care and
guidance and for timely submission Dr Tawfique sir, kindly gave his nod to supervise the work for the
final days. Thank you sir for your unique way of always remaining consistent, constructive and
professional, and for challenging me to achieve greater clarity of the research work within limited time
frame. Without your low-key, yet persistent, support I would have given up a long time ago.

Mr. Baniamin, Mrs. Mahfuza, Miss Sabrina and Ms Sharpun have helped me with practical matters
during my staying at the program, and I am deeply indebted to them.

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My work has benefited from the comments of persons who have scrutinized my texts at different stages in
the writing process. I am indebted to Dr Ishtiak Jamil, Dr Mobasser Monem and Dr Tawfique for
constructive comments at my ‘mid-time’ seminar. Dr Aminuzzaman who always advised to be more
focused by taking a simple and micro-level work having relevance to social science, provided me with
supportive and inspiring comments at my ‘final’ seminar. His constant monitoring with fondness and big-
eye about the thesis development kept me always on track. I am so grateful to you, sir.

I have had the privilege of sharing my interest in research issues with wonderful colleagues from different
disciplines over the months. Mr Abdur Rahman has been my companion from day one. Thank you Mr
Rahman, for your support and encouragement, and for all the laughter you provided me with as my next-
door neighbor for many days in Cox’s Bazar. Mr Mizanur Rahman from Bangladesh Academy for rural
Development (BARD) has shared my interest in tourism issues. Thank you Mizan, for your wonderful
sense of humor and for being an excellent sharing companion on my odds at understanding and going
forward with the issue under research. MPPG program is a small group of graduate students who shared
each other in their respective field of research and came to help and salvage if necessary. Thank you
everybody, for great inspiration.

Mr Bakhta and Mr Karna, Nepalese graduate students at MPPG Program, were the colleagues in the
group of people with whom I had held courses in Research Methodology. Thank you two, for rewarding
discussions and your insightful comments during the final stage of the writing process which was, though,
the dummy presentation in the second semester as part of our learning how to make research proposal
under the guidance of our veteran professor Dr Salahuddin Aminuzzaman.

Dr Golam Mohammed, my economics teacher at the MPPG Program has been an important source of
support during the research. He at times called me at his office and very often on cell took the news of
advancement of the research work. At times even explained the necessity of remaining serious to the
work. Thank you sir for being a great colleague and an amazing friend. Thank is also due to the MPPG
program for putting him in our way of learning economics.

I must recall all the whole-heartedness of Dr. Rafi, Mr Asraful Azam Khan and Mr Zahedur R
Chowdhury of Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Chittagong for their help with the research data
processing by SPSS. A post-graduate student, Mr Sohel Rana, from statistics department took a lot of
pain to update me on descriptive statistics and SPSS besides his own learning commitment.

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I am also particularly grateful for the financial support of NOMA Authority, Norway for all the months at
MPPG program. Outside the academic world I am indebted to my posting in Bandarban Hill District,
without which I would probably never have had the idea to persue a research work about impact of
tourism in Cox’s Bazar, our hub of tourism.

This thesis would not have been the same if I had not been given ‘access’ to the different government
officials and local conscious people I have interviewed. My thanks therefore include everyone who has
participated in the studies for all the insights and information you have provided. I have tried to paint a
fair picture of your sharing in hope that it will be of future use.

Of course, no thesis would have been written at all if I had not had the support from dear friends and
family including my mother and brother Faruk. You have always been there, through the ups and downs
and I could not have done it without you.The persons closest to me, Shapla, my wife and companion who
endured a lot during the coming into being of this research paper. Thank you for your enormous patience.
And little Arnob and Pritha, my son and daughter and greatest joys in life.

Finally I am grateful to Allah for his unhesitant divine blessings on me without which I would not be able
to take all the pains and patience to complete this research work at least with a level of self-judged
satisfaction.

Dhaka in June 2010

Sheikh Saleh Ahammed

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 ABSTRACT

Tourism is an increasingly important component of the economies of many countries. For some
countries including Bangladesh it is a significant source of income, employment and investment.
Tourism expansion creates both positive and negative impacts on the destination area, Cox’s
Bazar and the host country, Bangladesh. It is a good source of revenue for Bangladesh and
important to its economy. The purpose of this study is to understand the socio-cultural, economic
and environmental impacts of tourism development on the residents in Cox’s Bazar Township.
This area is famous for accommodating the longest unbroken beach, 120 kms in length, in the
world. This area is also the home of many tourist destinations including much-visited St.
Martin’s Island. People from home and abroad gather in large number during the peak season
(from November to March).

A survey was conducted in April and May 2010 in Cox’s Bazar Township. Among a random
sample of residents of different sections of life from the city, 30 questionnaires, with 35 tourism
impact statement to know the residents’ perceptions, were administered with a response rate of
almost 100%. Also residents were asked three open-ended questions- - about the impact of
tourism on the locality. The Government officials, local NGOs, local and non-local tourism
business personalities (the number of officials is total 10) were also asked with an open-ended
questionnaire about the possible impacts of tourism on Cox’s Bazar.

The results show that respondents strongly agree with the idea that tourism provides many
economic and socio-cultural benefits, but the residents are ambivalent about its costs. The
residents also mentioned some negative consequences on social, cultural, economic and
environmental sides. On social side, negative impacts are increase of crime, social division over
benefit of tourism and, most unwantedly, moral erosion or prostitution. On cultural part, it is that
local conservativeness and traditional life style is on the wane. On economic front, the residents
are happy with the opportunity of employment but bearing the odds like inflation and higher land
valuation. On environmental aspect, the residents did not significantly mention any positive side
but informed some negative sides like hill cutting, forest clearance and unplanned growth of
structures along the beach.

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It was also found that residents tend to recognise tourism benefits and are less interested or
concerned with its costs. It is probably peoples’ priority for employment and economic benefits.
People in developing countries tolerate the negative impacts. Education would encourage a
greater understanding of tourism development and therefore would create a better understanding
of tourists and tourism issues. Also, sustainable tourism or ecotourism, which aims to overcome
the impacts and satisfy the needs of both tourists and the host community, is to be encouraged in
Cox’s Bazar tourism. The government and BPC should not ignore the impact of tourism as
enunciated in this research by the residents.

Therefore the findings from this research are valuable at least in helping to develop strategic
management plans for Cox’s Bazar tourism in the way that the local residents are to be taken as
tourism development partner and the positive impact surfaced from this research should be
reinforced for manifold benefits to the tourism stakeholders including the local community. And
the negative impact of tourism as found out in this study should be ameliorated for the greater
benefit of the local community and tourism in Cox’s Bazar as a whole.

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 Table of Contents

Page
Dedication-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii
Acknowledgment------------------------------------------------------------------------------ iii
Abstract----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi
Table of Content------------------------------------------------------------------------------- viii
List of Tables----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x
List of Figures---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xi
List of Appendices---------------------------------------------------------------------------- xii
List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………… xiii

Chapter 1: Introduction-------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
1.1 Background-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
1.2 Problem Statement and Research Questions------------------------------------------ 3
1.3 Rationale----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7
1.4 Research Objectives---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7
1.5 Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework-------------------------------------------------- 7
1.7 Terms and Definitions-------------------------------------------------------------------- 14
1.8 Structure of the Thesis-------------------------------------------------------------------- 16

Chapter 2: Literature Review------------------------------------------------------------- 19

Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology---------------------------------------- 23

3.1. Research Type and Design-------------------------------------------------------------- 23
3.2. Sample size and Data Collection------------------------------------------------------- 24
3.3. Design of the Questionnaire for the residents---------------------------------------- 25

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 3.4 Study Area and Selection Criteria------------------------------------------------------ 27
3.5 Data Information Collection------------------------------------------------------------- 27
3.5.1 Primary Data Sources ----------------------------------------------------------------- 27
3.5.1.1 Reconnaissance Survey-------------------------------------------------------------- 28
3.5.1.2 Interview Method-------------------------------------------------------------------- 28
3.5.1.2.1 Open-ended Questionnaire Interview for the Officials and Experts--------- 28
3.5.1.2.2 Questionnaire Survey for the Local Residents--------------------------------- 28
3.5.2 Secondary Data-------------------------------------------------------------------- 28
3.5..3. Content Analysis-------------------------------------------------------------------- 29
3.5.4. Data Collection Technique----------------------------------------------------------- 29
3.5.5 Data Processing and Analysis plan--------------------------------------------------- 29
3.5.6 Validity of Data-------------------------------------------------------------------- 30
3.5.7 Limitation of the study ---------------------------------------------------------------- 30
3.5. 8. Ethical Consideration---------------------------------------------------------------- 32

Chapter4: Findings ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 33

Chapter5: Data Analysis and Discussion------------------------------------------------ 44

Chapter6: Conclusions and Reflections of the Study--------------------------------- 57

6.1 Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 57
6.2 Reliability and Validity------------------------------------------------------------------ 61
6.3 Answers to the Research Questions and objectives---------------------------------- 62
6.4 Concluding Remark----------------------------------------------------------------------- 64
References------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 65
Annexure--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 68

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 List of Tables

Tables Titles Page No.

Table-1 Some relevant research findings on impact of tourism 21

Table-2 Demographic Profile of Respondents (N=30) 34

Table-3 List of experts taken for interview from different offices 34

Table-4 List of positive social impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar. 35

Table-5 List of negative social impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar. 36

Table-6 Perceptions of Residents to the social impact of tourism in percentage 36

Table-7 List of positive cultural impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar. 37

Table-8 List of negative cultural impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar. 37

Table-9 Perceptions of Residents to the cultural impact of tourism in percentage 38

Table-10 List of positive economic impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s 38

Bazar.

Table-11 List of negative economic impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s 39

Bazar.

Table-12 Perceptions of Residents to the economic impact of tourism in percentage. 39

Table-13 List of positive environmental impact in Cox’s Bazar. 40

Table-14 List of negative environmental impact in Cox’s Bazar. 40

Table-15 Perceptions of Residents to the environmental impact of tourism in 40

percentage

Table- 16 Perceptions of Residents to the overall impact of tourism in percentage. 41

Table- 17 Perceptions of Residents to the overall impact of tourism in percentage. 41

Table- 18 Possible positive impact of tourism from Monkhali. 43

Table-19 International Tourism in Bangladesh since 1990 to 2005 50

Table- 20 Major Impacts of tourism on the local community in Cox’s Bazar Township 62

Table- 21 List of suggestions from key-informant and respondents with frequency 63

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 List of figures

Serial Title Page

Figure-01 An overall tentative model for tourism economy of 6

Cox’s Bazar

Figure-02 Analytical/Conceptual Framework of Possible Impact of 14

Tourism in a coastal city like Cox’s Bazar

Figure-03 Map of the study area Cox's Bazar city and Monkhali. 27

Figure-04 Sampling Methods and Procedures 31

Figure-05 Research Design Framework 32

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 List of Appendices

Serial Title Page

Annex I Questionnaire No 1: For Key Informant 68

Annex II Questionnaire No 2: Resident Survey 69

Annex III Questionnaire No 3: Control Group Questionnaire for Monkhali 72

used in FGD

Annex IV List of the Key-Informant interviewed through questionnaire 1 73

(Annex I)

Annex V List of Residents in the semi-structured Questionnaire 74

Annex VI Participants in FGD in Control Variable (Monkhali Area) 76

Annex VII Residents’ attitudes towards 35 impact statement of tourism in 77

Cox’s Bazar in percentages.

xii 
 
 Abbreviations

ACF - Assistant Conservator of Forest

ADC (G) – Additional Deputy Commissioner (General)
ADM – Additional District Magistrate
BD - Bangladesh
BMC - Beach Management Committee
BPC - Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation
CBTI - Community Benefit Tourism Initiatives
CEO - Chief Executive Officer,
DC – Deputy Commissioner
ETZ - Exclusive Tourist Zone
HMGHOA - Hotel Motel & Guest House Owners’ Association
HSC- Higher Secondary School Certificate.
HTL - Highest Tide Level
ISO – International Standard Organization
IUCN- International Union for Conservation of Nature.
IUOTO - International Union of Official Travel Organizations
LG – Local Government
LGED- Local Government Engineering Division
M- Median
MCAT- Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism
NACOM - Nature Conservation Movement
NTC - National Tourism Council
ROA - Restaurants Owners’ Association
SD – Standard Deviation
SET- Social Exchange Theory
SPARSO- Space and Remote sensing organization.

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SPSS - Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
SSC- Secondary School Certificate.
TIES - The International Ecotourism Society
TOAC - Tour Operators of Cox’s Bazar
TP – Tourist Police
TT- Travel and Tourism
TTE- Travel and Tourism Economy
UN- United Nations
UNEP- United Nations Environment Programme
WTO - World Tourism Organization
WTTC – World Travel and Tourism Council
YLG- Yasir Life Guard.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction
__________________________________________________
In this following chapter an introduction will be followed by the complexity that exists
regarding the development of Cox’s Bazar as a tourist destination. The specific aim of this
study will thereafter follow. Limitations will be acknowledged, finally terms and definitions
that are central for this report will be explained further

__________________________________________________
1.1. Background

In the 20th century, globalization of capitalism, movement of populations, and advances in

transportation and communication technology have helped to develop tourism into one of the
world’s largest industries. It continues to grow at an expected 100% over the next 10 years
(Burke and Kura et al, 2001; World Travel & Tourism Council, 2006; UN Atlas of the
Ocean, 2004; UNEP Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics, 2006). Globally
tourism and related economic activities generate 11% of Global Domestic Product, employ
200 million people, and transport nearly 700 million international travelers per year. These
figures are expected to double by 2020, especially in some of the world’s least developed
countries.

Bangladesh is located conveniently on the east-west air-corridor making it a gateway to the

Far East. It is endowed with resources and the potential for a tourism industry. In the south-
east the country has a 120 km long beach of soft silvery sand, the world's longest, in a
Riviera-like setting with crescent-shaped low hills overlooking the Bay of Bengal. The range
of the hills clad in lush green thickets are treasured locations for tourists. At the head of this
terrain is Cox's Bazar which is as romantic as its name is to the outside world. It is also
known by the name “Panowa”, the literal translation of which means “yellow flower”. Its
other old name was “Palongkee”. The modern Cox's Bazar derives its name from Captain
Cox (died 1798), an army officer serving the then India. Cox's Bazar town is a small port and
health resort. The municipality covers an area of 6.85 sq km with 27 mahallas and 9 wards
and has a population of 51,918. Located at a distance of 152 km. South of Chittagong, Cox’s
Bazar is connected both by air and road with Dhaka and Chittagong. The major source of
economy of Cox's Bazar is tourism. Many people are involved in these hospitality and
customer service type business. A number of people are also involved in fishing and
collecting seafood and sea products for their livelihood. Traditionally Cox’s Bazar is a

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conservative society and socio-cultural and economic statistics including literacy rate is far
below than national average.

Miles of golden sands, tall Cliffs, surfing waves, rare conch shells, colorful pagodas,
Buddhist temples and tribes, delightful sea-food all these make Cox's Bazar what it is, the
tourist capital of Bangladesh. The world's longest unbroken (120 km.) beach, still unspoiled,
slopes gently down to the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal against the picturesque
background of a chain of green hills. The long sandy beach that stretches from the mouth of
the Bakkhali River going all the way to Teknaf welcomes tourists for bathing, sun-bathing
and swimming. It is the main attraction of Cox’s Bazar. The breathtaking beauty of the
setting-sun behind the waves of the sea is captivating. Handmade cigars and handsome
products of the Rakhayne tribal families are good buys.

The around-attractions of Cox’s Bazar include: Aggmeda Khyang, a Buddhist monastery at

the hills, Himchari picnic spot, just about 8 kms from Cox’s Bazar, Innani Beach, 32 kms
away from the city, Sonadia island with very little human visitation, Teknaf peninsula, some
80 kms from town and picturesque St. Martin Island to the south at 13 kms distance from
mainland. A total of 15933 birds of 52 species have been spotted in Cox’s Bazar according to
a census of aquatic birds (the Daily Star, February 2, 2009). All these places are easily
accessible from Cox’s Bazar by bus, jeep and water. As a result Cox’s Bazar becomes a hub
of tourism.

Tourism in Bangladesh is managed by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) under the

Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism (MCAT). The economic contribution of tourism and
the share of Cox’s Bazar to the national economy are not studied with reliable statistics. Very
recently World Travel and Tourism Council’s Bangladesh Country Report 2010
(www.wttc.org) forecasted that the contribution of Travel & Tourism (TT) to Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) is expected to rise from 3.9% (BDT265.9bn or US$3,786.4mn) in 2010 to
4.1% (BDT788.4bn or US$8,781.7mn) by 2020. The Real GDP growth for the Travel &
Tourism Economy (TTE) is expected to be 1.7% in 2010 and to average 6.4% per annum
over the coming 10 years. The contribution of the TTE to employment is expected to rise
from 3.1% of total employment, 2,373,000 jobs or 1 in every 32.3 jobs in 2010, to 3.2% of
total employment, 3,114,000 jobs, or 1 in every 31.1 jobs by 2020. Export earnings from
international visitors are expected to generate .5% of total exports (BDT6.0bn or
US$85.8mn) in 2010, growing (nominal terms) to BDT20.5bn or US$228.5mn (.5% of total)

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in 2020. Travel & Tourism investment is estimated at BDT64.0bn, US$911.9mn or 3.7% of
total investment in 2010. By 2020, this should reach BDT190.7bn, US$2,124.5mn or 3.8% of
total investment.

Nearly two million people visit Cox’s Bazar in peak season from November to March (Mr.
Abdur Rahman, ACF, Divisional Forest Office, Cox’s Bazar in the interview on 14.05.2010).
Visitors are mainly Bangladeshi nationals and originate from all parts of Bangladesh. The
basic itinery of visitors includes walk along the beaches, sea bathing, shopping from the
Rakhaine stalls. The beaches of Labonee, Kalatoli, Himchari and Innani are particularly
heavily visited-Labonee beach is reportedly one of the most heavily visited tourist destination
in the country (Daily maximum visitors as high as 30,000) (Abdullah Z Ahmed, 12 August,
2006).

The area from Labonee to Kalatali beach has many hotels, motels, cottage, rest and guest
houses and restaurants, around 300 in number developed by both private and government for
tourist. Some thousands of local and non-local Bangladeshi nationals are working in the
tourism sector of Cox’s Bazar. The rural setting of Cox’s Bazar is gradually changing by the
force of tourism.

1.2. Problem Statement and research Questions

Tourism’s unplanned growth has damaged the natural and socio-cultural environments of
many tourism destinations. These undesirable side-effects have led to the growing concern
for the conservation and preservation of natural resources, human well-being and the long-
term economic viability of communities (Akis, Peristianis, & Warner, 1996; Butler & Boyd,
2000; Cater, 1993; Hall & McArthur, 1998; Haralambopoulos & Pizam, 1996; Healy, 1994;
Mowforth & Munt, 1998; Place, 1995; Richard & Hall, 2000).

Much of the recent literature on the development of world tourism has been concerned with
the impact of tourists on the host community. As the countries have turned to tourism as the
means of raising national income and as a means of ending dependency on a limited range of
primary products for export. So the diverse pressures from tourism and its associated
development have begun to affect the local population. In 1980, R. W. Butler in an
influential article postulated a link between tourism development and the attitudes of
residents to tourists. As the number of tourists to a region increases, residents who at first
were overwhelmingly positive in their attitudes to their guests develop increasing

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reservations concerning the long-term benefits of the visitors. This may be the original
expectations of the benefits of tourism were unrealistic (and so are incapable of being
fulfilled) or because the benefits are perceived to accrue only to a small number of people.
Alternatively although expectations of the benefits are realized, the environmental or social
costs were initially overlooked, or excessively discounted, so that local residents come to
doubt whether their visitors are an unqualified blesssing. Models such as Doxey’s Irridex
Model claim that residents’ attitudes will go through a number of stages: from ‘euphoria to
antagonism’. While model of this kind can be criticized as being based on too simplistic an
understanding of residents’ reactions, they do at least give some indication of residents’
feelings.

A major reason for rising interest has been the increasing evidences that tourism development
leads not only to positive, but also has the potential for negative outcomes at the local level.
Different recent studies show that tourism development is usually justified on the basis of
economic benefits and challenged on the grounds of social, cultural, or environmental
destruction. Furthermore, the economic benefits traditionally associated with tourism
development are now being measured against its potential for social disruption. It is generally
felt that the impact study and attitudes of residents toward the impacts of tourism are likely to
be an important planning and policy consideration for successful development, marketing,
and operation of existing and future tourism programs. So the tourism industry’s greatest
challenge is that of integrating the needs of all stakeholders in a sustainable management plan
that takes into account the environmental, socio-economic, and cultural dimensions.

Cox’s Bazar experiences huge growth in tourism since 1990 (shown in figure 1). During the
peak season some millions of tourists visit Cox’s Bazar and all hotels, motels and guest
houses are totally filled up and even some visitors spend their night inside the vehicle
because no seats are available in the hotels. From general observation it is understood that
tourism has brought a big change in this area. Local community people are seemingly
benefited from tourism and its economy is quite good compared to other backward area. On
economic front, the local community and other stakeholders like investors, hoteliers, tour
operators and so on are getting benefits. But little is known about the overall implication or
impact of tourism - whether good or bad- on the area on economical, social, cultural and
environmental sides. The substantial literature on the economic, environmental and socio-
cultural impacts of tourism is replete with seemingly contradictory observations, with

-4-
researchers reporting both positive and negative findings in each of these categories (Wall &
Mathieson, 2006).

Research Questions:
This investigation targeted at a small township of Cox’s Bazar that has become dependent on
tourism as an economic activity and a region that has been seemingly economically over-
invested. The research seeks to investigate the following two questions:

1. What are the positive and negative impact of tourism in Cox’s Bazar?
2. What are the issues to be addressed for improving the current situation of tourism in Cox’s
Bazar?

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 Demand Demander
Driven
Demand

Corporate picnic Sight seeing

Family tour Trip to spots
Holiday
Study tour Pleasure trip makers
Picnic Security Local
Hiking Enjoyment visitors
Day observance Comfort ness Students
Knowing
local culture
Foreigners
Friends
Family

Regulatory Board: Impact:

BPC Economic
Local authority
Beach Mgt. Spots & Services Environmental
Committee at Cox’s Bazar Social
District Tourism Tourism Cultural
development-
Committee
Others

Supplier Supply Consumers

Private sector Hotel/Motel Local people
Foreign & Resort Tourists
Local Local culture Visitors
businessmen Security Employers
Transport Commodity Employee
sector Transport Businessman
Developers Delicious Food Servicers
Govt. Org. Others Workers
Security force Others
Others

Figure 1: An overall tentative model for tourism economy of Cox’s Bazar.

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1.3. Rationale

To date, little or no research has examined the impacts of tourism on the local community
and residents’ perceived impacts of tourism development on the local community of Cox’s
Bazar. The present study will look into the impact of tourism on Cox’s Bazar and the
residents’ perception to the impact of tourism will be evaluated to find out the positive and
negative impact of tourism on social, cultural, economical and environmental aspects. This
research will help the policy planners to be updated, at least to some extent, of the tourism
impacts being felt and encourage to ameliorate the negative sides and bridge the existing gaps
by reviewing the necessary policies and their strict but positive enforcement in the area for a
sound, systematic and sustainable tourism development in Cox’s Bazar.

1.4. Research objectives:

a. To investigate into the impacts of tourism development and associated activities in the
study area.
b. To explore possible ways of improvement of the current situation.

1.5. Theoretical Framework

The tourism literature has provided no generally accepted theoretical framework(s) through
which one may assess progress toward sustainability. Indeed, the few theoretical works that
have been proffered in this area have been met with skepticism (e.g., Collins 2001). Given
the highly applied nature of the tourism literature, such skepticism is understandable; formal
theoretical models may be viewed as little more than complex mathematical abstractions,
whose outcomes are largely driven by ad hoc assumptions. As stated by Henderson and
Quandt (1971, p. 2),

“Theories represent simplifications and generalizations of reality and therefore do not

completely describe particular situations. . . . [G]eneral theories are fruitful because
they contain statements which abstract from particulars and find elements which
many situations have in common. Increased understanding is realized at the cost of
sacrificed detail.”

However, studies of the impact of tourism on the local communities elsewhere in the world
have revealed that tourism has a specific sociological effect on host communities (Cohen,
1988), and several models have been developed to explain the impact of tourism and the way
in which these are perceived by the residents. Doxey’s Irridex Model (1975), Butler’s Tourist

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Area Life Cycle (1980), Social Exchange Theory (Ap, 1992) and Stakeholder Theory are
most often invoked to explain tourist-host relationship and the possible impacts it produces.
Here for the present research the social exchange theory and the stakeholder theory are taken
for discussion and finding out the necessary research framework.

Social Exchange Theory (SET):

Social exchange theory is a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains
social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties. The theory
has roots in economics, psychology and sociology. Social exchange theory grew out of the
intersection of economics, psychology and sociology. According to Hormans (1958), the initiator of
the theory, it was developed to understand the social behavior of humans in economic undertakings.

Essentially, Homans introduced the notion that exchanges are not limited to material goods
but also include symbolic value (e.g., approval and prestige). In other words, SET posits that
all human relationships are formed by the use of a subjective cost-benefit analysis and the
comparison of alternatives. In SET, the term ‘exchange’ could be defined as social interaction
characterized by reciprocal stimuli i.e. the interaction would not continue in the long-run if
reciprocity were violated. However, his writings bridged a variety of disciplines and sparked
differing theories of social exchange.

It is notable that some proponents see SET as a prominent instance of “sociological

miniaturism” that ostensibly allows the “examination of large-scale social issues by means of
the investigation of small-scale social situations”, or by some, simply “seeing the big through
the small”. Although theorists diverge on particulars, they do converge on the central
“essence” of SET: Social exchange comprises actions contingent on the rewarding reactions
of others, which over time provide for mutually and rewarding transactions and relationships.

Currently, Social Exchange Theory materializes in many different situations with the same
idea of the exchange of resources. Homans once summarized the theory by stating:

Social behavior is an exchange of goods, material goods but also non-material ones,
such as the symbols of approval or prestige. Persons that give much to others try to
get much from them, and persons that get much from others are under pressure to give
much to them. This process of influence tends to work out at equilibrium to a balance
in the exchanges. For a person in an exchange, what he gives may be a cost to him,
just as what he gets may be a reward, and his behavior changes less as the difference
of the two, profit, tends to a maximum.

-8-
As part of explanation of the theory, SET uses economic terms such as benefit, gain, cost, and
payment to describe social situations. According to this supposition, people consciously and
unconsciously evaluate every social situation in terms of what they will have to put into it,
and relate this to the benefits they think they may get out of it. The greater the potential
benefit, the greater the personal investment an individual may make in a relationship.

In more simple words, people make their decisions based on their individual satisfaction level
within the relationship. Individuals typically have a high level of happiness if they perceive
that they are receiving more than they are giving to a relationship. If, on the other hand,
individuals feel that they are giving more than they are receiving, they may decide that the
connection is not fulfilling their needs.

From criticism point of view, SET is considered by many psychologists to be highly

individualistic, which means that it assumes that the individual assesses all human social
interactions based on his or her personal gain. This supposition denies the existence of true
altruism. It also suggests that all decisions are made from a self-serving motivation, even
generosity.

Now let us dissect the theory in relation to the perception or thinking of the local people at a
local setting of a tourism destination how the tourism industry influences the local
community and in turn people feel the consequences or impact in their life on the basis of
mutual profit or loss, advantage or disadvantage.

The tourism is an economic activity besides its hospitality and different social ramifications.
It is very natural that when a place is thought to be suitable, economically viable and socially
compatible and naturally enjoyable, then it is taken for tourism development from modern
tourism point of view. In SET exchange is the essence for a relationship between the parties.
In tourism at a place seemingly the apparent parties are the local people and the tourism
industry itself (The industry may be fragmented for the parties involved into tourists,
entrepreneurs and the public management authority- though at this stage it is not the research
consideration). The local people will go for exchange with the tourism industry on different
fronts mentionably in social, cultural economic and even environmental aspects. The
economic aspects can be quantified directly in exchange forms. The other aspects (social,
cultural and environmental) are also quantifiable as per SET in form of exchange whether it
is good or bad for the parties on a mutual basis. Say, if the local people think that the tourism
brings good and favorable outcomes for the locality, they will form their support to it and if

-9-
they feel otherwise, they will feel distressed and maintain a negative approach to its further
growth. Here lies the underlying clue and framework for the present research to rely
principally on the SET as its main way of going deeper into the impact or perception study of
tourism for Cox’s Bazar Township.

It is very much evident that through the exchange of resources the parties involved in the
process of transaction may form two types of opinion – positive traits for continuing the
relationship or negative traits for disconnect the relationship. Accordingly if we attempt to fit
the aim and objectives and further analysis of the research it surfaces that the parties will
evaluate their relationship at the tourism destination in terms of positive and negative
exchange ratios and accordingly they will decide on the continuity of the exchange. In the
present research one of the parties is the local community who, as host, are exposed to the
relationship with the tourism industry and as per SET they will assess their exchange with the
tourism industry (including its different parts- tourists, entrepreneurs and the management).
This assessment as per SET, once again, can be positive or negative, good or bad, beneficial
or detrimental. So people will always look for their advantages and speak against their
disadvantages or to mitigate it when in the bond of a relationship. When the local people find
happiness and opine positively it means they are experiencing good exchange from the
tourism i.e. ‘positive impact of tourism on their life’. If they are unhappy and the exchange is
prone to the opposition they will feel bad and come out with their grievances against the
tourism industry i.e. ‘negative impact of tourism on their life’ or they may ask the opponent
to mitigate or ameliorate their part of the ratio to make it balance one i.e. they are giving
‘suggestions or issues to be addressed’.

The tourism literatures suggest that the impact assessment of tourism by the local resident is
generally done on socio-cultural, economic and environmental front which, for the sake of
logical and systematic understanding, discussion and findings of the proceeding research, is
divided into perceived positive impact of tourism and perceived negative impact of tourism.

Globally using SET, many researchers who investigate host community’s attitudes toward
tourism and support for tourism study the perceived impacts of tourism. Much of the research
on host’s attitudes toward tourism has been atheoretical. However, a number of studies have
made use of a theoretical framework in assessing residents’ attitudes toward tourism. Such a
framework has been the Social Exchange Theory (SET) which is one of the most widely used
models in tourism impact assessments (Gursoy and Rutherford, 2004). The theory has also
been found to be the most accepted in explaining perceptions and attitudes toward the

- 10 -
industry (Perez and Nadal, 2005). Consequently several studies have used the SET as a
theoretical base for assessing community attitudes toward tourism.

Stakeholder Theory:
In the last forty years, the term 'stakeholder' has come to have a specialized meaning in
discussions of business management and corporate governance. According to R. Edward
Freeman's history of the term

The actual word ``stakeholder'' first appeared in the management literature in an

internal memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International, Inc.),
in 1963. The term was meant to generalize the notion of stockholder as the only group
to whom management need be responsive. Thus, the stakeholder concept was
originally defined as ``those groups without whose support the organization would
cease to exist.''

Now, however, `stakeholder' often means something quite different: according to Freeman,
`A stakeholder in an organisation is (by definition) any group or individual who can affect or
is affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives.

The main protagonist of this theory is regarded as being R. Edward Freeman, Olsson
Professor of Applied Ethics at the University of Virginia's Darden School. It was originally
detailed in his book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, and identifies and
models the groups which are stakeholders of a corporation, and both describe and
recommends methods by which management can give due regard to the interests of those
groups. He argued that managers should serve the interests of everyone with a "stake" in (that
is, affect or are affected by) the firm. Stakeholders include shareholders, employees,
suppliers, customers, and the communities in which the firm operates - termed by Freeman
the "big five." According to Freeman the firm's managers are morally obliged to strike an
appropriate balance among the big five interests when directing the firm's activities. In short,
stakeholder theory attempts to address the "Principle of Who or What Really Counts."

Accordingly any tourism destination generally comprises different types of complementary

and competing organizations, multiple sectors, infrastructure and array of public/private
linkages that create diverse and highly fragmented supply structure. The most manageable
primary unit of study for tourism is the “destination,” since this is where the totality of the
cumulative interactions among tourists (demand), industry (suppliers), and hosts (including

- 11 -
residents and environment) for a given destination, can be studied. Therefore, stakeholder
theory – a theory borrowed from strategic management literature for managing organizational
stakeholders to achieve organizational objectives was applied to tourism within a destination
context.

Now, who are key destination stakeholders in a tourism area? The World Tourism
Organization (WTO) defines major partners for sustainable tourism development as the
industry, environment supporters and community/local authority. According to the findings
of a case study, the legitimate stakeholders of urban tourism development are industry and
government (at national, provincial and municipal levels). Similarly, the industry and
government are perceived to be the most important stakeholder groups who should be
involved in implementation of sustainable tourism projects (Timur & Getz 2002).

The tourism industry creates business opportunities, jobs, income and foreign exchange by
providing an array of tourism services. These services include transportation,
accommodation, food and drinks, and travel. The second partner, environment, is the basis
for natural, cultural and built (man-made) resources that the industry is dependent upon to
attract tourists. These stakeholders focus their efforts on balancing the type and extent of
tourism activity against the capacity of the resources available. Finally, the local community
is another participant for sustainable tourism decision making. The community group is
comprised of residents, local government, local business organizations, and other local
institutions and associations (WTO 1993). Each stakeholder group approaches tourism
development from a different perspective and therefore has different goals in sustaining
tourism development.

As such, stakeholder theory and ideals indicate that all stakeholder groups should be involved
in tourism development, including tourists. From the discussion on requirements to be a
stakeholder, including the types of stakeholders in the tourism study, it is observed that there
are four major tourism stakeholders: tourists, residents, entrepreneurs, and local
governmental officials. In one of the first studies to investigate multiple stakeholder groups,
Pizam (1978) found that residents and entrepreneurs differed on a few perceptions such as the
impact tourism had on the community’s quality of life, but that the two groups did not differ
in perceptions on some of the negative impacts from tourism (e.g., traffic congestion, litter,
price of goods, and property cost). Twenty seven years later, Andriotis (2005) also found that
there were not many differences between residents and entrepreneurs in their perceptions of
tourism impacts.

- 12 -
So to develop the theoretical framework for the present study both the SET and the
stakeholder theory were tied in a logical sequence just by taking full or part ‘essence’ of the
theories for describing the research path of the tourism impact on the destination (Cox’s
Bazar township) community. Taking help of the stakeholder theory the present study had
chosen the government officials and the residents – the other two were just excluded
deliberately to minimize the size of research – to interview about the research issue at Cox’s
Bazar context on the study of tourism impact on its local community. Now how the tourism
impact on the local residents could be forwarded for the present research had been relied on
the SET which suggested studying the perceived positive and negative impact of tourism
under four heads: social, cultural, economic and environmental.

In short for studying the impact of tourism on Cox’s Bazar Township, the concerned
government officials and the local community were taken to be questioned both on the
positive and negative impact of tourism on the local residents under social, cultural,
economic and environmental fronts. The succinct of the theoretical framework obtained is
presented in figure 2.

By joining the Social Exchange Theory and the Stakeholder Theory the analytical framework
for the possible impact of tourism at a destination like Cox’s Bazar can be drawn tentatively
in the following manner:

- 13 -
 Tourist Social Cultural Economic Environmental
satisfaction impact impact impact impact

Perceived positive
impact of tourism

Personal benefit Overall

Tourism goes
Tourism from tourism community
forward
satisfaction

Perceived
negative impact
of tourism

Visitor Social Cultural Economic Environmental

dissatisfaction Impact Impact Impact impact

Figure 2: Analytical/Conceptual Framework of Possible Impact of Tourism in Cox’s Bazar.

1.7. Terms and Definitions

To make it easier for the reader to understand the different terms that are often used in this
report, it is of importance to explain these as they easily can be defined in different ways. It is
consequently a way to avoid misunderstandings concerning interpretation. The purpose of
this is also to decide on one definition that represents the specific term for this report. To
define the meaning of the terms is of uttermost importance as it is crucial to clarify and limit
the meaning of ambivalent terms.

Attitude : The term attitude is important in this study as it concerns responsible decisions
makers attitudes towards sustainable development in relation to promoting sustainable
tourism and responsible travel to the international tourist that are visiting Cox’s Bazar. In the

- 14 -
Collins English (1991) dictionary the term is defined as “The way a person views something
or tends to behave towards it, often in an evaluative way.”
In the Swedish National Encyclopaedia, Rosén (2007) writes that an attitude is a point of
view, an approach to a certain person or a certain phenomenon. Within social psychology the
term attitude was defined as thoughts that had been created by experience and that will come
to show when someone reacts towards a person, a group or a certain phenomenon. In this
study the definition from Collins English dictionary will be used.
Sustainable Tourism: There are many different ways of defining sustainable tourism. To
make it easier for the reader to understand how the researchers of this study defines the term
the definition of Choi & Sirakaya (2005) has been chosen to be used throughout this research
study. According to Choi & Sirakaya “Sustainable tourism is defined as an alternative
tourism form that improves the quality of life of the host community, provides a high quality
of experience for the visitors and maintains the quality of the environment on which both the
host community and the visitor depend.”

According to Agenda 21 for Travel & Tourism Industry “Sustainable tourism can be defined
as the tourism that meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and
enhancing opportunities for the future.”
However, each organization that has been included in this research study will probably define
the term sustainable tourism different from each other and different from the definition
presented above. This will be taken into consideration and will also be accounted for.

Tourism: Tourism is undertaken for pleasure. According to Jeansson (2007) in the Swedish
National Encyclopedia the term tourism is defined as visitors’ activities when they travel to
places that exist outside their ordinary environment. The duration of the stay shall be shorter
than a year and the main purpose of the trip shall not involve work that is compensated by
someone at the destination. The word tourism can also include the subject which relevant
activities and problems are investigated and studied.

Mass Tourism: Mass tourism means providing leisure activities to large numbers of people
at the same time. Coastal resorts and cruises are popular forms of mass tourism.

Nature Tourism: Nature tourism can be defined as the travel to unspoiled places to
experience and enjoy nature.

- 15 -
Ecotourism: Nowadays ecotourism is thought to be a popular alternative to mass tourism for
scarce natural resources. According to The International Ecotourism Society (TIES)
ecotourism is “responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and
improves the welfare of local people.”

Sustainable Development: According to The Bruntland Report, Our Common Future, 1987
sustainable development “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
the future generations to meet their own needs.”

Tourist: The most widely accepted, but technical, definition of the tourist was proposed by
the International Union of Official Travel Organizations (IUOTO) in 1963 and approved in
1968 by the World Tourist Organization (Leiper 1979:393). It states that (international)
tourists are "temporary visitors staying at least twenty-four hours in the country visited and
the purpose of whose journey can be classified under one of the following headings:
(a) Leisure (recreation, holiday, health, study, religion and sport);
(b) Business (family mission, meeting)" (IUOTO 1963: 14).

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): GDP is the total value of goods and services produced by
an economy during a period of time minus the intermediate consumption they use to produce
their outputs. GDP does not consider imports or exports in the calculation.

1.5 Structure of the Thesis

The thesis comprises six chapters.
In the current chapter the broader issues, concepts and approaches fundamental to the
research have been outlined. Especially the background ideas for the research, the problem
statement at the study area context and other areas context, research questions and objectives,
the theoretical aspects to analyze the study and finally the important terms and definitions are
highlighted.

Chapter Two reviews the literature that provides the conceptual framework followed in this
research and tells the outcomes of the different research by the authoritative scholars in the
field of tourism. In line with tourism impact study the different important research articles
were consulted and some of them are noted down for facilitating the understanding of the
outline of research path.

- 16 -
Chapter three outlines the methodological approach adopted in the investigation of impact of
tourism in Cox’s Bazar. Specifically, I present the research process and analysis in greater
detail. The sampling procedure, the reasons for study area selection, the stakeholders to be
interviewed and the underlying reasons for selection, questionnaire preparation and its its
administering the ways of using empirical tool SPSS including descriptive statistics, the
limitations and the use of content analysis are described in detail.

Open-ended questions were asked first to the local residents and then put the tourism
statements to scale out so that the residents could not imitate from the scaled statements to
answer the open-ended questions. The key informants were asked through a specially made
open-ended questionnaire only.

Chapters four and Five present the findings and analysis of the research undertaken on
impact of tourism respectively. In chapter four the data obtained from the stakeholders
through the questionnaire were arranged systematically. The open-ended questions
interviewed to the key informants and the local residents are arranged together with
frequency under the heads positive social, cultural, economical and environmental impact of
tourism and the negative social, cultural, economical and environmental impact of tourism.

Again the data of perceptions of the residents of 35-tourism impact statements on Lickert
Scale under the heads –social impact, cultural impact, economic impact, environmental
impact and overall impact- are arranged with data of open-ended questions to the both type of
respondents under the broad head Social Impact of tourism, Cultural Impact of tourism,
Economic Impact of tourism, Environmental Impact of tourism and Overall Impact of
tourism in the chapter four titled “Findings.” It is also to be noted that Monkhali area under
Ukhia is taken as Control variable and the data obtained through a focus group discussion are
also arranged thereafter. It is taken to compare the study area scenario with the control
variable not to allow the research more wide and ambitious.

In the chapter five titled “ Discussion and Analysis” the data under the respective heads are
discussed for finding out both the major positive and negative impact of tourism under social,
cultural, economic and environmental heads, and some impacts are also discussed under
‘overall impact of tourism’ head. For each head, say positive social impact of tourism’,
reflection of the respondents–key informants and the residents- through open-ended
questionnaires are arranged in a table. Accordingly the negative social impacts are also
arranged in another table. Then the data of the perceptions of the residents from the social

- 17 -
impact statement are put in another table. So for social impact three tables were discussed
using frequency and percentages to find the more precise and evident type of social impact
both positive and negative on the residents of Cox’s Bazar township from Tourism. In the
same manner the cultural, economic and the environmental impacts are discussed and
analyzed. The overall comment on tourism impact is followed by the next.

Chapter six concludes with a reflection, synthesis and assessment of the findings and makes
recommendations drawn from the results for achieving more sustainable tourism
development. It also looks for space whether the research questions are answered properly in
a valid and reliable manner. The chapter discusses the experience of the researcher and some
research challenges in the problem for future, and reflects upon the application of the on-
going research style to integrate the open-ended questions with the scaled answers of the
respondents to tourism development and the possibilities to advance the tool in the future.

- 18 -
 Chapter 2: Literature Review
__________________________________________________
This chapter will present an extract of what has been researched upon earlier concerning the
matter of consequences of local and international tourism. This information can give a clear
understanding of how the tourism industry and tourists can influence the social community at
a destination. This information can thereafter be put in relation to Cox’s Bazar.

__________________________________________________
The purpose of this chapter is to get a platform for assessing the impact of tourism on the
local community and their perceptions of the socio-cultural, economic and environmental
impact of Cox’s Bazar town tourism according to social exchange theory and stakeholder
theory, and to identify key socio-cultural, economic and environmental variables and
concepts contained in the literature with a view to developing an appropriate research
methodology and instruments that will direct and inform the research process. It is
mentionable that there is presumably little or no research done on the impact issue in relation
to Cox’s Bazar town tourism. The research that has been made is mainly involving what
impact tourism exert on the local community and in what way the negative sides could be
mitigated to make mass tourism of Cox’s Bazar into sustainable tourism for the community.

Murphy’s (1985) publication ‘Tourism: A Community Approach’ emphasized the necessity

for communities to relate tourism development to local needs and formed the basis for
numerous later studies on the various relationships between tourism and communities
(Richards & Hall, 2000).

Swarbrooke (1999) conclude in his previous research that tourism can be seen as an
economic activity that produces a range of positive and negative impacts. However
sustainable tourism seeks to achieve the best balance between economic benefits and social
and environmental costs. In order to plan and develop tourism successfully, economic,
environmental and social aspects of tourism must be well understood.

According to Godfrey and Clarke (2000), socio-cultural changes of tourism relate to local
quality of life and sense of place. Positive changes in the quality of life could be as follows:
personal income increases, helps to improve living standards for those more directly involved
in industry, supports the diversity of restaurants and other cultural entertainment, influence
the assortment of goods for sale in many local shops that would not be available in the same

- 19 -
amount if tourism did not exist to support them, park areas are often improved, street
furniture and design criteria introduced, greater care and attention placed on overall
environmental quality, new opportunities etc. And on the contrary negative changes in the
quality of life could be as follows: local shops overcharging, petty theft from cars and
accommodation, more serious personal assault etc. Regarding the sense of place, positive
changes could be as follows; revitalizing local culture and traditions, enriching local
understanding and interest in history and culture, a sense of pride in local heritage,
celebrations/festivals can become tourist attractions, crafts promotion and production in large
scale etc.

Hassan (2000) argues that tourism has become sensitive to and depended on a high-quality
sustainable environment. Therefore, tourism marketing in the future must focus on forms of
tourism that are sensitive to sustain the environmental integrity of nature and cultural heritage
resources. He also expects that sustainable tourism will, in the future, make an economic
contribution to both the world economy and the economies of the local destination.

Richards & Hall (2000) explains the importance of the host community in relation to
sustainability:

“Human communities represent both a primary resource upon which tourism depends,
and their existence in a particular place at a particular time may be used to justify the
development of tourism itself. Communities are a basic reason for tourists to travel, to
experience the way of life and material products of different communities”

Hunter (2002) says that “For sustainable tourism to occur, it must be closely integrated with
all other activities that occur in the host region”. According to this statement it can be
concluded that there is a responsibility that lies on the industry but also on powerful
organizations within the destination. Management and control therefore seems necessary to
be able to integrate sustainability in tourism development.

Mowforth & Munt (2003) argues that the growth of mass tourism has led to a range of
problems, which have become more obvious over the recent years. It includes environmental,
social and cultural poverty. These problems are often connected with mass tourism, although
there is evidence from studies concerning the impacts from tourism which suggests that new
forms of tourism also suffer from similar problems.

- 20 -
Williams (2004) continues to argue that the motives for travel are many but a common reason
is curiosity. “Curiosity leads the traveller to search for all kind of experiences in all parts of
the world. To see other people, other cultures and other political systems is a prime
motivational force for travel.”

Shaw & Williams (2004) conclude that if tourism is well planned, developed and managed in
a socially responsible manner, it can bring several types of socio-cultural benefits. For
example improve the living standards of people and help pay for improvements to
community facilities and services if the economic benefits of tourism are well distributed. A
possible way to prevent this development is to promote and invest in sustainable tourism; an
alternative form of tourism that could help to protect the natural, cultural and social
environment of a destination. This form of tourism whether it is called eco-tourism,
responsible travel or other, is a reaction of the consequences of mass tourism.

The draft report of Department of Environment for the management of sustainable tourism in
Ecologically Critical Areas in Cox’s Bazar (January 2008) observed that the current tourism
pattern is marginalizing locals; poor communities in the area are receiving no significant
benefits from tourism rather than paying some of the social and environmental costs of this
activity. It also states that involving locals in management can be done either by delegating
tourism rights to community level or by ensuring that government planning processes are
participatory and responsive to local needs.

The following table 1 shows some more research findings of tourism impact on the local
community. These findings are very much relavant to the present study.

Table 1: Some relevant research findings on impact of tourism.

Writer (s) Issue/Impact

Krippendroff (1987)
Harrison (1992)
Burns & Holden (1995)
Sharpley (1994)
Pizam et al, 1982
Ryan (1991)
* Tourism has colonialist characteristics robbing local populations
of autonomous decision making.
*Tourism provides new opportunities and instigates social changes.
* Tourism provides socioeconomic benefit at one extreme and
dependency and reinforcement of social discrepancies at the other
extreme.
* Biggest problem is congestion/overcrowding.
* Employment opportunities and presence of visitors lure young
people to areas of tourism development.
* Tourism improves quality of life through improvements to
infrastructure.
* Tourism is a potential determinant of crime.
* Erosion of the local language and dialect.
* Tourism instigates social interaction within host community.

- 21 -
Sharpley (1994) * Tourism contributes to the preservation of religious and historic
buildings.
* Hosts adopt foreign language through necessity.
* Hosts develop stereotypical attitudes to tourists.
* Commoditization of religion and resulting conflict.
McIntosh et al (1995) * Resentment is generated by the economic gaps arising between
host and tourists.
* Local resentment is generated by inflated prices.
Murphy (1985) * Attitudes changes are an indication of acculturation.
Brown (1993) * Tourism destroys traditional culture.
Burns & Holden (1995) * Culture is seen as a commercial resource.

Joseph Mbaiwa (2003) * Provides employment opportunities to local communities and a

significant source of foreign exchange.
* Having negative environmental impacts in the area such as the
destruction of the area’s ecology.

- 22 -
 Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology
________________________________________________________________________

This chapter makes an effort to explain my research. It started from selecting the type
and design of the research, selecting the study area, sample size, methods of data
collection and information collection to their analysis.

_______________________________________________
In tourism research there is an ongoing need for statistical insights, but qualitative approaches
offer a great deal of potential in understanding actions, problems and processes (Phillimore &
Goodson 2004). Phillimore and Goodson argue that one of the strengths of tourism research
is that it is not bound to fixed disciplinary boundaries with their associated methods, and is
therefore free to combine a range of approaches and even Research paradigm to give a more
fluid approach to research.

3.1. Research Type and Design

This exploratory research aspired to assess the possible impacts of tourism in Cox’s Bazar
society. The design of the research was primarily based on phenomenological qualitative
research where descriptive, reflective and interpretive views were presented about the
circumstances through interviews and perception study approaches. It also enquired the
condition of another area, Monkhali under Ukhia upazila, 60 kms away to the south along the
beach from Cox’s Bazar, as part of the control group study through administering a
questionnaire to understand the possible impacts of tourisms in Cox’s Bazar in relation to the
latter area. Thus, the research broadly focused on a qualitative approach while also using
some quantitative information to corroborate the findings.

The study approached the adjacent permanent local residents (whose length of staying was
more than five years in the study area) and the cross-sectional experts from the public offices
and civil society, who are very much concerned with the spurious growth of the tourist
facilities, to measure the impact of tourism in Cox’s Bazar. The study area was approached
with structured questionnaire. The form of the questionnaire was both closed and open
ended for the local residents. The open-ended questions enquired about the impacts of
tourism being felt by the residents and some statements (Here also treated as closed questions
in the same questionnaire) reflecting possible impacts and perception towards impacts of
tourism in Cox’s Bazar were also asked to the residents. It is to be noted that the residents

- 23 -
were asked their socio-demographic conditions (Question no 1 to 8) and then the open ended
question on tourism impacts and the issues to be addressed (Question no 9 to 12) and then
their perception of 35-tourism statements were sought. The open-ended questions related to
tourism impact were asked first so that the residents could not copy the answer from the
perception statement of tourism impact.

The response of the dwellers were cross-checked with the opinions of the specialists who
were public and private (including Non-government organization and the civil society)
officials having concern and responsibility to speak on impacts of tourism in Cox’s Bazar. An
open-ended questionnaire (Annex I) was administered to know the probable impacts of
tourism and issues to be addressed to improve the current scenario of tourism in Cox’s Bazar.
No doubt it brought to light some contradictory issues, cross-sectoral ideas and even hidden
realities of the impact of tourism which could not be explored with the use of quantitative
method.

To be objective and authentic in the process of research on tourism’s impact study on the
locality of Cox’s Bazar, another place named Monkhali, under Ukhia upazila is selected as
control variable which is yet to see any touristic development. At Monkhali a local bazaar
called ‘Bat Toli’ was instantly selected for administering the questionnaire. Many local
people gathered there and eight persons were chosen randomly to conduct a focus group
discussion for the control variable. It was quite effective and every person participated and
expressed their feeling while answering the questions (Annex III). One pertinent side is that it
would be unwise to expect all the residents well-educated and quicker in their response to the
queries (Annex II). So the control group was the intervening medium to cross-check and
compare the situation of the tourism impact in Cox’s Bazar and thus to contain the
respondents to be over speculative and subjective in their retort.

Therefore, as a researcher, my prime task was to look into the impact of tourism in a
systematic and coherent manner and, upon that, also to suggest the issues to be addressed to
bridge the existing gaps in the proper tourism management in Cox’s Bazar combining the
response of the both questionnaires and my logical inference.

3.2. Sample size and Data Collection

This study was conducted in Cox’s Bazar town. A sample of 10 officials from different
offices as experts or key informants were selected beforehand considering their level of
involvement with the tourism through open- ended questionnaire in May 2010. It is

- 24 -
mentionable that a few officers did not want to give interview on personal grounds and
respecting their confidentiality those names are not inked out in the preceding discussion.

In order to achieve a 95% confidence level, and a 5 % sampling error (on the basis of a
conservative response format 50/50% to determine the sample size) of the present study, the
required sample size was approximately 400 respondents. As theory goes, by increasing the
sample size to around 500, the overall predicted sampling error could be decreased to below
5. But considering the length of research time (Six months), manageability of the data and
processing them, financial involvement to go to the study area for data collection and
necessary scrutiny the statistically required sample size was not taken. It is to be mentioned
that the present research work is not assisted by any research grant from any source, totally to
be borne by the researcher himself. At this backdrop the sample size taken for this study is
only 30 (It is the minimum threshold level to validate any social research) residents of the
study area. To validate the research, the key informants (10 officials) and control variable (8
participants through FGD at Monkhali) were taken to corroborate the findings of the research.

Most of the local respondents (18 participants out of 30 i.e. 60%) were between the ages of
30 to 50. The questionnaire for the residents was administered verbally by the researcher
himself. To avoid an enrolment bias, adjacent residents of the study area were interviewed.
All adult members of the household were approached. Some of them denied taking part in the
interview. The interviews were taken in May 2010, which is a low tourist season in the city.
Interviews were taken during both the day and the evening and on all days of the week so as
to obtain a more representative sample within households. Being supplemented by key
informants and control variable data number of the local residents (sample size=30) appears
to well represent the population, at least, in terms of the diverse socio-demographic profile of
respondents, which is presented in Table-2.

3.3. Design of the Questionnaire for the Residents

The present research took the 3-part questionnaire (1st part-socio-demographic information,
2nd part- 3 open-ended questions of tourism impact and 3rd part-35-tourism statement for
residents’ perception) applied to the community residents of Cox’s Bazar as the basis for
impact study which will be supplemented by the observation of the key-informants’ response.
So designing the questionnaire for the residents was a vital work.

- 25 -
The first section of the questionnaire elicited basic background data (shown in table 2) on
address, marital status, gender, household size, education, age, occupation and annual income
of the local respondents. The second part asked three open-ended questions, and two were on
tourism impact (any three good sides and any three bad sides of tourism impact) and one on
the respondent’s suggestion to mitigate the negative sides. Considering the level of education,
conservativeness of the society and time adjustment of the respondent, number of impacts
was mentioned and surprisingly on the ground the most respondents mentioned more than
three good and bad sides of tourism impact.

Finally the perception part (Part3 of the questionnaire at Annex II) was prepared following a
review of existing literature dealing with residents’ perceptions of tourism development (e.g.,
Andriots, Konstantinos and Vaughan 2003; Akis, Peristianis, and Warner 1996; Johnson,
Snepenger, and Akis 1994; Long, Perdue, and Allen 1990; Madrigal 1995; McCool and
Martin 1994; Pizam 1978) and tourism development issues that were identified by past
research (e.g., Kousis 1984; Tsartas et al. 1995) as important for the residents of Cox’s Bazar.
The perceived tourism impact scale measured both belief (strongly agree to strongly disagree
items) and affect components (very advantageous to very disadvantageous items). Of the
questionnaire the third section consisted of 35-attitudinal statements concerning the social,
cultural, economic, environmental and overall impacts of tourism. The questions were
adapted to the local situation and a lot of questions relevant to the local conditions were
added.

The Likert scale questions were based on statements to which respondents were asked to
respond in terms of a 5- point scale that represented a continuum from very positive to very
negative. Eight statements used in the analysis were designed to assess residents’ perceptions
of the social impacts of tourism, 2 statements dealt with the cultural impacts, 12 statements
dealt with the economic implications of tourism development, 6 statements dealt with the
environmental impacts of tourism development, and 7 statements focused on the overall
impacts. The classification of questions into the five categories (i.e., social, cultural,
economic, environmental, and overall) emerged by the identification of the main issues found
by past research dealing with residents’ attitudes and opinions of tourism development in
different foreign destinations. To ensure validity of the survey instrument, experts were asked
to judge if the instrument covered the range that they would expect, a review of the literature
was undertaken to identify different aspects of the concepts under investigation, and a pretest
(i.e., the pilot survey) was taken to check a proper and broad flow of questioning.

- 26 -
3.4. The study area and selection Criteria

The study area shown in figure 3, Cox’s Bazar town, accommodates the hotel motel zone,
marine drive, dense living of local community, Himchari picnic spot, many hatcheries, ranges
of hills with burnt of cutting here and there and few roadside small industry were of
representative of the research aim. Again Monkhali, around 50 kms away from Cox’s Bazar
is still at its natural setting- with pristine beach, rural life-style, community–based living,
intact cultural traditions, not that vibrant local economy, strong social bondage, etc. The latter
location as control group was better representative to study the impact of tourism in Cox’s
Bazar.

Figure 3: Map of the study area Cox's Bazar city and Monkhali.

3.5. Data and Information collection

This research involved both primary and secondary data and information.

3.5.1 Primary Data Sources

The study was largely based on the primary data collected through first field visit, interviews

- 27 -
to the experts on tourism and questionnaire survey for the residents at the study area, Cox’s
Bazar, and the control group, Monkhali.
3.5.1.1. Reconnaissance Survey
The first field visit to observe the overall situation helped to formulate the research strategy
and identify the stakeholders who were directly or indirectly connected with tourism
development and its associated both positive and negative impacts. Normally the researcher
while going to field gets acquainted with the practical scenario and chooses his course of
action towards the successful collection of data and its valid processing.
3.5.1.2. Interview Method

3.5.1.2.1. Key Informant through open-ended questionnaire

It was carried out using open-ended questionnaire (Annex 1) with ten (10) public and private
office holders who are directly working on the tourism in Cox’s Bazar and having authority
to talk on the impacts of tourism in Cox’s Bazar.

3.5.1.2.2. Questionnaire for Local Residents’ Survey

Local communities or residents feel the impact of the ongoing tourism development in Cox’s
Bazar and they could be the very much reliable source of information about how they desire
the tourism should be and up to what level the surrounding community would remain friendly
to tourism development. Keeping this in mind a 3- part questionnaire (Annex II) was
conducted among thirty (30) local community people of the study area. Again another
locality-specific 2-part open-eneded questionnaire administered in Monkhali, under Ukhia
upazila of Cox’s Bazar and o8 respondents as part of Control group to validate the data
collected for impacts of tourism in Cox’s Bazar were formed for a focus group discussion
which was very fruitful and participants partook actively in the data collection process from
Monkhali.

3.5.2. Secondary Data

The secondary data and information were collected from a range of sources. The tourism
policy, Coastal zone policy, land use policy, environmental policies and other relevant
policies and strategies were taken from the websites of the different ministries of Bangladesh
Government. Different publications related to the research issue are also collected from
journals, projects, periodicals, and the daily newspapers, archives of both home and abroad.
Websites of the SPARSO, water-modeling institute, and different universities teaching
tourism management, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, and Department of Environment

- 28 -
could also be the source of information. The websites of the World Tourism Organization,
ESCAP, IUCN, and UNEP etc also found useful with information on the issue in
consideration.

3.5.3. Content Analysis

Content analysis is a well-established research methodology commonly used in social
sciences to analyze communications (Holsti 1969). Over the past two decades, content-
analysis research has remarkably benefited from the exponentially increasing volume of
electronic data, including articles in general media databases, communications in virtual
communities, and textual and pictorial materials from Web sites (Neuendorf 2002; Rainer
and Hall 2003; Romano et al. 2003; Wickham and Woods 2005). A growing number of
tourism studies employ qualitative data interviews, open-ended questions, promotional
brochures, Web-based content, etc.) and subsequently, content-analysis techniques to discern
meaning from this wealth of textual material. The current and recent publications (collected
as part of secondary data sources) were analyzed thoroughly for finding out more impact
(both positive and negative) of tourism in line with the present study. Again sufficient
emphasis were given to see the overall impacts of tourism taking place in different parts of
the globe and thus to logically tie them for the tourism impact scenario of Cox’s Bazar.

3.5.4. Data Collection Technique

Survey methods were used to approach the local residents with both close and open ended
questionnaire format. The experts and the conscious part were interviewed with an open-
ended questionnaire.

3.5.5. Data processing and Analysis Plan

The data obtained from the survey method for the perceptions of the residents to the tourism
impact statement were processed with the use of statistical package for the social science
(SPSS). Findings of the experts’ and the residents’ opinion on tourism impact from primary
data were analyzed qualitatively and the residents’ perception on the impact of tourism in
Cox’s Bazar were presented quantitatively.

Socio-demographic factors (age, education, income, dependence of tourism employment, and

length of residence ) were used as independent variables and the 35-Lickert scale statements
as the dependent variables. One way Analysis of Varience (ANOVA) and t-tests were used to
identify differences between the five independent variables in respect of the dependent
variables. When the independent variable was divided into three or more subgroups, ANOVA

- 29 -
tests were applied. (the t and F ratios produced by these procedures are not cited in the text
because they do not provide any explanatory value to the research).
As a result the perceptions of the residents to the impact of tourism in Cox’s Bazar and the
data of tourism impact and suggestions through open-ended questions to the key informants
and the residents are discussed under different heads together: Social impact, Cultural
impacts, Economic Impacts, Environmental impacts and General evaluation. Finally
suggestions of the respondents to ameliorate the negative sides and enhancing the positive
sides for a more productive tourism is discussed in the conclusion chapter with a brief
discussion of the policy implications extracted from the in-house content analysis. Some
avenues of further research arising out of this research will be pointed in the conclusion part.

3.5.6. Validation of Data

Validation of data was ensured through cross-checking with the existing literatures, expert
opinions and comparing the findings from the control variable study area, Monkhali.

3.5.7. Limitation of the Study

The research study focused on the interviews that are conducted with the local core offices
having involvement and understanding of the issue in consideration. The total sample size
(key informant plus local residents) was together only 40 (10 plus 30 respectively) (shown in
Figure 4) to look into the study deeply and comprehensively and also to avoid resource-
support constraints of the researcher. The tourists were excluded very consciously from the
impact study to keep the research microscopic and more focused and manageable. Interviews
with other relevant organizations including Hotel Motel Owners’ Association, Hatchery
Owners’ Association and some relevant Government offices within the tourism sector were
not conducted.

- 30 -
 Cox’s Bazar District

Cox’s Bazar City

Purposive Sampling

Stratified Experts on Tourism Local Residents

Sampling

Purposive Govt. +BPC+LG

Sampling Business NGOs Hotel Tourism Service Other
Business Job
Simple 4+1+1=6 2 from 2 from
Random Officials Businesses NGOs 06 09 07 08
Sampling Hotelier Resident Resident Resident

Total 10 Total 30
Samples Samples

Figure 4: Sampling Methods and Procedures

As regards the methodology, a few points must be made clear:

(I) throughout the course of the research, the findings and observation records was cross-
checked for authentication and validation;
(II) The methodology was kept deliberately flexible to cope with changing circumstances.

- 31 -
 Conceptual Framework

Research Design

Sampling Method
Coordination Selection of - Purposive Sampling Data Collection
Schema Study Area - Stratified Sampling and
- Simple Random Sources
Sampling

Primary Data Secondary Data

- Reconnaissance - Official
Survey Documents
Data Entry and Processing - Interview - Reports
- Field Observation - Books
- Questionnaire - Development
Data Interpretation and Findings Survey Plan
- Focus Group - Statistical
Discussion for Report
Control Variable - Official
Analysis and Conclusion
Websites

Recommendations for Policy implementations

and Future plans and Prospects

Figure 5: Research Design Framework

3.5.8. Ethical Considerations:

Since my study was mainly based on the interviews and survey, so all measures were taken to
inform the respondents / stakeholders about the objectives of my on-going study. Systematic
research procedure (as shown in Figure 5) were fully followed and obliged during the study
period and for any inconvenience I changed my study dimension discussing with the supervisor.

32
 Chapter 4: Findings
____________________________________________________

In this chapter the collected data regarding the impact of Tourism on Cox’s Bazar will be

presented to the reader. These facts will later be analyzed together with the above presented

theoretical framework to be able to conclude the situation concerning the impacts of tourism on

the local community of Cox’s Bazar and the feeling they expressed for its refinement towards the

sustainability.

__________________________________________________
The present research is aimed to find out the response of the different officials involved in
tourism process and the local residents how the latter think about the impact of tourism on
different sides. Ultimately the impact is felt by the local community and upon that, they develop
the mind-set for tourism. Especially the experts were asked through open-ended questionnaire
about the impact of tourism and the possible ways to mitigate the negative aspects to facilitate
the positive sides to be more productive for tourism.

Again the local residents responded through a 3-part questionnaire and the parts are socio-
demographic profile, possible impact of tourism and necessary measures to be taken by three
open-ended questions and finally 35 tourism statements to study their perceptions to the impact
of tourism so that a set of statistically valid and reliable data of tourism impact on Cox’s Bazar
township can be obtained and doable suggestions and correspondingly a significant analysis with
them could be proceeded.

33
Now we should first arrange the socio-demographical picture of the local community
respondents in the table 2.

Table 2: Demographic Profile of Respondents (N=30)

Number %
Gender
Male 27 90
Female 03 10
Age
Under 30 6 20.0
30-50 18 60.0
Over 50 years 6 20.0
Marital status
Single 3 10.0
Married 27 90.0
Education
Below SSC 7 23.3
SSC to HSC 9 30.0
Higher 14 46.7
Annual Income
Under 1.5 lakh 13 43.3
1.5 lakh-3 lakh 12 40.0
Over 3 lakh 5 16.7
Occupation
Tourism-related 18 60.0
Non-tourism related 12 40.0
Length of Residency
Less than 25 years 6 20.0
25-40 years 11 36.7
Above 40 years 13 43.3
Total 30 100

In the same fashion the key informants are arranged according to their official affiliation in the
table 3.

Table 3: List of experts taken for interview from different offices

Key Informants/Experts Number of
(Only involved with tourism) Respondents
(N=10)
1. Government Officials 4
2. Local Hotel – Motel Owners 2
3. BPC Official 1
4. LG Representative 1
5. Local NGOs working for socio-economic development 2

Perception of the residents to the impact of tourism and its components is vital for the survival of
the industry in any destination. Though perception study for tourism impact in Bangladesh

34
backdrop is quite new it is thought to be a good mechanism to understand the pulse of the people
receiving the impact of tourism.
For Cox’s Bazar tourism, mostly condensed in a small area from Kalatali point to Sea Crown
point, around 3 kilometers, and adjacent areas to the landward known as hotel-motel zone, and
residential area, tourism infrastructures-hotel, motel, guest houses, restaurants and other
facilities- are being grown and visitors throng here in the peak season (November to March) in
huge number. Again Cox’s Bazar Pourashova is a small municipality and around 6 square
kilometers in area. So perception assessment using Lickert’s 5-point scale for tourism impact is a
suitable tool which is administered to the 30 local residents for the 35 tourism-statement related
to impact. The data obtained from residents’ perception of the 35 impact statement is attached in
the Annex 7.

Social Impacts of tourism

The social impacts of tourism obtained through the open-ended questionnaire both from the
experts and the local residents are summarized in the table 4 and table 5.

Table 4: List of positive social impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar

Number Number
Positive Social Impacts (Major Items) of key of
informant resident
(N=10) (N=30)
1. Conservative, superstitious and illiterate society is modernizing with positivism. 9 4

2. Literacy rate and academic institutions are increasing day by day in the area. 5 6

3. Modern ideas, values and behavior are being introduced in the local community. 6 2

4. Different infrastructural projects are taking place centering tourism. 3 11

5. Living standard of the local community has increased. 3 4

35
 Table 5: List of negative social impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar
Number Number of
Negative Social Impacts (Major Items) of key resident
informant (N=30)
(N=10)
1. Social instability / disparity is evident for taking tourism benefits in the area. 2 2

2. Crime (drug addiction, child and woman trafficking, hotel - killing has increased. 7 8

3. Prostitution /sexual corruption/extra marital relation/moral erosion is on the rise. 8 7

4. Number of vehicles has increased and causes traffic congestion. 2

5. Government land (Khas land) is being occupied for tourism facilities. 2

The data from respondents’ perceptions to social impact statements are arranged including
frequency and percentage for corroboration with the data obtained for both positive and negative
social impact data through open-ended questionnaire. The data from perception to social impact
is shown in the table 6.

Table 6: Perceptions of Residents to the social impact of tourism in percentage

I. Social Impacts 1 2 3 4 5 Total
1. Tourism has led to an increase of 11 11 1 5 2 30
infrastructure for local people. (36.7 %) (36.7 %) (3.3 %) (16.7 %) (6.7%)
2. Tourism development increases crime 4 13 2 6 5 30
in Cox’s Bazar. (13.3 %) (43.3 %) (6.7 %) (20.0 %) (16.7 %)
3. Tourism causes division of local 6 11 5 5 3 30
community. (20.0 %) (36.7 %) (16.7 %) (16.7) (10.0 %)
4. Our household standard of living is 15 14 - - 1 30
higher because of the money that tourists (50.0 %) (46.7 %) (3.3 %)
spend here.
5. How advantageous are the impacts of 11 11 4 1 3 30
tourism on your family? (36.7 %) (36.7 %) (13.3 %) (3.3) (10.0 %)
6. The quality of public services has 5 9 2 7 7 30
improved due to more tourism in my (16.7 %) (30.0 %) (6.7 %) (23.3 %) (23.3 %)
community.
7. Tourism gives benefits to a small group 11 13 2 2 2 30
of people in the area. (36.7 %) (43.3 %) (6.7 %) (6.7 %) (6.7 %)
8. Overall, how advantageous are the 7 16 1 6 - 30
impacts of tourism on the social life of (23.3 %) (53.3 %) (3.3 %) (20.0 %)
Cox’s Bazar?
Note: For statements 5 and 8, the scale ranged from 1 (very advantageous) to 5 (very disadvantageous), and for the
remainder from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly dis-agree).

36
Cultural Impacts of Tourism

At this globalised world it is difficult to identify which one is positive or negative. Matter is
change is coming and that should be in the positive sense. One respondent reminded that initially
dish culture was not taken as a happy incident for the society; now it is a reality without which a
modern person cannot think his life. It has got total acceptance slowly and totally.

The cultural impacts of tourism obtained through the open-ended questionnaire both from the
experts and the local residents are summarized in the table 7 and table 8.

Table 7: List of positive cultural impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar
Number of key Number of
Positive Cultural Impacts (Major Items) informant resident
(N=10) (N=30)
1. Cultural exchange between host community and tourists from home and abroad. 3 5

2. Changes in conservativeness, clothing and language in the local community. 4 3

3. Cultural programmes (Music, poem recitation, 31st night, etc) are held in a festive 2 2
mood on the beach and cultural centre by the performers from local and Dhaka.

4. Every community including Rakhain, Muslims, Hindus and the Buddhists are 2 3
observing their rituals and trying to keep it intact. It’s a good example of communal
harmony.

Table 8: List of negative cultural impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar
Number of Number of
Negative Cultural Impacts (Major Items) key resident (N=30)
informant
(N=10)
1. Traditional culture / life style is fading. 1 4

2. Openness of tourist is breaking the traditional conservativeness. 2 5

3. No negative cultural impact as people are becoming tolerant and welcoming new 5 1
ideas and culture of tourism.

4. Rakhain community is becoming smaller in their numbers. 1 2

The data from respondents’ perceptions to cultural impact statements are arranged including
frequency and percentage for corroboration with the data obtained for both positive and negative
cultural impact data through open-ended questionnaire. The data from perception to social
impact is shown in the table 9.

37
 Table 9: Perceptions of Residents to the cultural impact of tourism in percentage
II. Cultural Impacts Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Total
Agree 2 3 4 Disagree
1 5
1. Tourism encourages a variety of 10 13 1 4 2 30
cultural activities by the local population (33.3 %) (43.3 %) (3.3 %) (13.3 %) (6.7 %)
(e.g., crafts, arts, music).
2. Tourism has brought change in local 12 15 3 - - 30
traditional life style. (40.0 %) (50.0 %) (10.0 %)

Economic Impact of Tourism

In 2009-2010 FY about 200 crores of money is being invested in tourism sector in Cox’s Bazar.
In next three years another 302 crores of money will be spent for modernization and expansion
of the Cox’s Bazar airport to make it an international destination. If these programmes are
implemented and some more tourism-oriented projects are taken, foreign exchange earning from
tourism including Cox’s Bazar could stand for second or third.

The economic impacts of tourism obtained through the open-ended questionnaire both from the
experts and the local residents are summarized as follows in table 10 and table 11:

Table 10: List of positive economic impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar.

Number of Number of
Positive Economic Impacts (Major Items) key resident
informant (N=30)
(N=10)
1. Money circulation is going on in local economy. So economic activities increases. 7 14

2. Employment opportunity/ job creation for local community has increased. 10 19

3. Income-generating activities are increasing. Income and financial capacity is risings. 13

4. Government is getting revenue. 4 3

5. Investment has increased manifolds in Cox’s Bazar 3

38
 Table 11: List of negative economic impact with respondents’ frequency in Cox’s Bazar.
Number of Number of
Negative Economic Impacts (Major Items) key resident
informant (N=30)
(N=10)
1. Price-hike of the essentials and local community is suffering much. 2 15

2. Land valuation is so high. So land grabbing is common. Poor people are selling land 6 9
at high prices and occupying the govt. khas land.

3. Money is being taken away by the multi-national companies from Cox’s Bazar. 3

4. Non-locals control tourism in Cox’s Bazar and locals are not preferred for jobs. 3 2

5. Seasonality of jobs- during off-season the large number of local staffs loses jobs. 2 3

The data from respondents’ perceptions to economic impact statements are arranged including
frequency and percentage for corroboration with the data obtained for both positive and negative
economic impact data through open-ended questionnaire. The data from perception to economic
impact is shown in the table 12.
Table 12: Perceptions of Residents to the economic impact of tourism in percentage
III. Economic Impacts 1 2 3 4 5 Total
1. How advantageous are the impacts of 13 14 2 1 - 30
tourism on the Cox’s Bazar economy? (43.3%) (46.7%) (6.7%) (3.3 %)
2. I have more money because of tourism 13 7 1 7 2 30
in Cox’s Bazar. (43.3%) (23.3%) (3.3%) (23.3%) (6.7 %)
3. How advantageous are the impacts of 9 20 1 - - 30
tourism on employment? (30.0 %) (66.7%) (3.3%)
4. Non-local-owned businesses are 14 9 3 4 - 30
beneficial for the area’s tourist industry. (46.7%) (30.0%) (10.0 %) (13.3%)
5. Tourism creates more jobs for foreigners 5 1 1 4 19 30
than for local people in the region. (16.7%) (3.3%) (3.3%) (13.3%) (63.3%)
6. Tourism attracts more investment in 27 3 - - - 30
Cox’s Bazar. (90.0%) (10.0%)
7. There should be no government 6 8 1 9 6 30
incentives for tourism development. (20.0%) (26.7%) (3.3%) (30.0%) (20.0%)
8. Prices of many goods and services in the 25 5 - - - 30
area have increased because of tourism. (83.3%) (16.7%)
9. There should be a specific tax on tourists. 9 6 2 7 6 30
(30.0%) (20.0%) (6.7%) (23.3%) (20.0%)
10. Tourism development increases 30 - - - - 30
property prices (e.g., land). (100.05)
11. Most of the money earned from tourism 18 5 1 6 - 30
ends up going to out of the local companies (60.0%) (16.7%) (3.3%) (20.0%)
12. Overall, how advantageous are the 8 18 1 1 2 30
impacts of tourism on Bangladesh (26.7%) (60.0%) 93.3%) (3.3%) (6.7%)
government’s income?
Note: For statements 3 and 12, the scale ranged from 1 (very advantageous) to 5 (very disadvantageous), and for the
remainder from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly dis-agree).

39
Environmental Impact of Tourism

The environmental impacts of tourism obtained through the open-ended questionnaire both from
the experts and the local residents are summerised as follows in the following table 13 and table
14.
Table 13: List of positive environmental impact in Cox’s Bazar

Number of key Number of

Positive Environmental Impacts (Major Items) informant resident
(N=10) (N=30)
1. No positive impact of tourism on environment in Cox’s Bazar. 7 3

Table 14: List of negative environmental impact in Cox’s Bazar

Number of key Number of
Negative Environmental Impacts (Major Items) informant resident
(N=10) (N=30)
1. No or weak drainage system and sewage and wastes are drained to the sea beach. 6 10

2. Forests are cleared for living and tourism enterprises. 2 4

3. Hill cutting is common and uncontrollable and thus possibility of landslides. 7 5

4. Hotel Motel Zone has caused huge loss to natural environment. Many hotels were 6 5
built without any plan so closely to the beach and beach environment is degraded.

5. Rohynga refugees are a menace for the visitors. 2 4

The data from respondents’ perceptions to environmental impact statements are arranged
including frequency and percentage for corroboration with the data obtained for both positive
and negative environmental impact data through open-ended questionnaire. The data from
perception to environmental impact is shown in the table 15.
Table 15: Perceptions of Residents to the environmental impact of tourism in percentage

IV. Environmental Impacts 1 2 3 4 5 TOTAL

1. Tourism produces long-term negative 11 11 1 6 1 30
effects on the environment. (36.7%) (36.7%) (3.3%) (20.0%) (3.3%)
2. Tourism provides an incentive for the 2 11 2 7 8 30
conservation / restoration of natural (6.7%) (36.7%) (6.7%) (23.3%) (26.7%)
resources.
3. The construction of hotels and other 15 8 2 4 1 30
tourist facilities has destroyed the (50.0%) (26.7%) (6.7%) (13.3%) (3.3%)
natural environment in the region.
4. Tourism development increases the 16 14 - - - 30
traffic problems. (53.3%) (46.7%)

40
5. This community should control 15 9 - 3 3 30
tourism development. (50.0%) (30.0%) (10.0%) (10.0%)
6. Overall, how advantageous are the 1 13 3 7 6 30
impacts of tourism on the environment? (3.3%) (43.3%) (10.0%) (23.3%) (20.0%)

Note: For statement 6, the scale ranged from 1 (very advantageous) to 5 (very disadvantageous), and for the
remainder from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly dis-agree).

Overall Comments and perceptions to tourism impact:

While interviewing the key informant and the residents some comments in line with tourism
impact have been experienced. It is to be mentioned that one question to the both respondents
were about the tourism management status and their answer mostly came in the form of
comment is condensed in the table 16.

Table 16: List of comments from key-informant and respondents

Number of key Number of
Overall Comments on Tourism Impacts (Major Items) informant resident
(N=10) (N=30)
1. Tourism is not well-managed in Cox’s Bazar 9 2

2. BD could earn its budget from the tourism in Cox’s Bazar alone if it is well-
managed.

3. Tourism should be developed in the way that it contains local social and cultural
component.

The data from respondents’ perceptions to overall impact statements are arranged including
frequency and percentage for corroboration with the data obtained for both positive and negative
impacts under different heads through open-ended questionnaire. The data from perception to
overall impact is shown in the table 17.

Table 17: Perceptions of Residents to the overall impact of tourism in percentage

V. Overall Impacts 1 2 3 4 5 Total

1. Overall, the benefits of tourism are 11 16 1 2 - 30
greater than the costs to the people of (36.7%) (53.3%) (3.3%) (6.7%)
the area.
2. Tourism activities/services should 11 8 - 8 3 30
have a user fee system. (36.7%) (26.7%) (26.7%) (10.0%)
3. Tourism development increases the 6 13 2 8 1 30
number of recreational opportunities (20.0%) (43.3%) (6.7%) (26.7%) (3.3%)
for local residents.
4. We should take steps to restrict / 14 8 3 - 5 30
control tourism development in Cox’s (46.7%) (26.7%) (10.0%) (16.7%)
Bazar.
5. Strict laws are needed to protect the 26 4 - - - 30
environment. (86.7%) (13.3%)

41
6. I am proud to live in a place (Cox’s 24 5 - 1 - 30
Bazar) that provides tourism (80.0%) (16.7%) (3.3%)
opportunities.
7. Overall, the benefits of tourism are 15 12 - 2 1 30
greater than the costs to Cox’s Bazar (50.0%) (40.0%) (6.7%) (3.3%)
as a whole.
Note: For statements 1 and 7, the scale ranged from 1 (very advantageous) to 5 (very disadvantageous), and for the
remainder from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly dis-agree).

Data from Control Variable (Monkhali):

For determining the possible impacts of tourism in Cox’s Bazar, Monkhali is taken for control
variable which is yet to see the violent flow of tourism as it is in Cox’s Bazar. However a focus
group discussion with eight local inhabitants administering the questionnaire in box has
demonstrated that this area is potential for tourism in the eye of the participants. Though no
touristic infrastructure is yet to be built, the participants inform that on completion of the Marine
drive and the LGED road this area will receive attention from investors for tourism. Already land
price has gone tremendously high and at times people come to see and buy land. The main
occupation of the locality is fishing; shrimp fry collection, betel leaf cultivation, small grocery,
agriculture and so on. On socio-demographic front, people are poor and literacy rate is below the
national average.

On asking about the presence of tourism at the locality, the participants unanimously opined that
they don’t have any tourism facilities and no advantageous direct road link for the visitor to
come to Monkhali. Also retorted that without tourism or visitors’ presence they don’t have any
problem. But they came to the same opinion about the necessity of tourism development in their
locality. Many said, “Tourists are our guests (Mehman)”. It implies that these people are tourist
friendly and have a good gesture to the tourism development.
When asked about the prospective benefits they hope from tourism if developed, the aggregated
benefits are as follows in the table 18.

42
 Table 18: Possible positive impact of tourism from Monkhali
Possible Benefits of Tourism in Monkhali when it will be developed
a. Roads, hospitals, big buildings and schools will be built.
b. Electricity connection will come.
c. People will get job. Laborers will get employment.
d. Literacy rate will go up.
e. Living standard will increase. This area will get familiarity.
f. Girls will be married off without dowry.
g. Environment will be changed ( probably referring to law and order)
h. Law and order will improve.
i. Government will get revenue.

When asked about the probable negative impact of tourism they might experience, the
discussants pointed to the followings:
a. local culture will diminish slowly.
b. Land price will go up.
c. Women “purdah” will be decreased.
d. people will be landless as they will sell for the necessity of tourism and
will become landless.
e. People will be rough-behaved (Adab kaida kame jabe).
f. local environment (talking for law and order and traditional values) will
deteriorate.
Everyone of the participants already visited Cox’s Bazar more than once and explicitly the
majority said that they don’t want here the same trend of tourism in Cox’s Bazar. The
participating people suggested the following points for tourism development in the vibrant
manner.
a. Special zone for the tourist at a distance to save the local culture and the people from
being spoiled.
b. Trees are to be planted beside the buildings. All the area should not be covered with
buildings.
c. The landless people who will sell out their land to tourism development should be
rehabilitated.

43
 Chapter 5: Analysis and Discussion
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this chapter tourism in Cox’s Bazar will be analyzed in relation to the consequences and
impacts it creates on the area’s community. This will be followed by a discussion with existing
literature and impact study to justify the findings of the research. Finally, the future of the tourist
destination will be analyzed in relation to the preceding discussions.

The local respondents were tabled into seven socio-demographic factors (gender, age, marital
status, education, income, dependence on tourism employment and length of residence). It shows
that most of the respondents are male (90%), married (90%) and ages between 30-50 (60%).
Their length of residence ranged from 10 to 65 years in the community i.e. almost 80% (from 25-
65 years of residence) has seen the development of tourism in Cox’s Bazar since 1990 in their
own eyes. Education level of the respondents is well distributed for three heads; below SSC
including illerate, primary going and others are 23.3%, SSC to HSC 30% and above that 46.7%.
On occupation side, 60% are doing tourism-related job for their living and annual income for
majority (43.3%) is below 1.5 lakh, for 40% 1.5 to 3lakh and only the fortunate 16.7% over 3
lakh. From socio-demographic viewpoint the respondents included from almost all sections of
life in Cox’s Bazar. Even one rickshaw puller, one day labourer and one mason were also
interviewed for the sample to be more representative.

From the 10 officials, 40% are from government offices including Cox’s Bazar district
administration, Cox’s Bazar Zilla Parishad and forest official; 20% each are from entrepreneurs
side and NGO; 10% each from BPC and local representative including Mayor, Cox’s Bazar
Pourashova. Most of them are responsible officials with direct involvement in the planning,
strategic management, monitoring and investment in the tourism industry.

All the seven socio-demographic factors were used as independent variables and the 35 Likert
scale statements as the dependent variables. One-way ANOVA and t-tests were used to identify
differences between the five independent variables in respect of the dependent variables. In the
results of the ANOVA and t-tests, not many statistical differences were evident since
respondents displayed a quite high degree of similarity in their choices. (Again, the t and F ratios

44
produced by these procedures are not cited in the text because they do not provide any
explanatory value to the research.)

Residents’ acceptance of tourism development is considered important for the long-term success
of tourism in a destination, since if tourists are greeted with hostility their number will decline.
Therefore, the host community should be involved in the development and planning process. As
Lankford and Howard (1994) state, “Local governments and tourism promoters should pay
particular emphasis to the finding that if people feel they have access to the planning/public
review process and that their concerns are being considered, they will support tourism.” It is
pointless for a community to expand tourism without the full support of its community.

To the key informants seven open-ended questions were asked to know the probable positive
and negative impact on social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects and the possible
remedies were also sought. Accordingly the local respondents considering the social background,
literacy rate and traditional conservativeness of the area were asked three open-ended questions
on positive sides of tourism, negative sides of tourism and practical suggestions for tourism
development in the second part of the questionnaire followed by 35 tourism statement under the
heading of social impact (statement 1-8), cultural impact (9-10), economic impact (11-22),
environmental impact (23-28) and overall impact (29-35) on Lickert Scale.

The responses were scored from 1 (strongly agree) to 2 (agree) to 3 (neutral) to 4 (disagree) to 5
(strongly disagree). For the statements (5, 8,11,13,22 and 28) beginning with ‘How
advantageous’ were scored from 1 (very advantageous0 to 2 (advantageous) to 3 (undecided) to
4 (disadvantageous) to 5 (very disadvantageous). Once again it is to be mentioned that all the
open-ended questions were asked first to the residents to avoid their speculation from the impact
statements.

In the advantage of analysis and discussion the answers of open-ended questions were table in
positive and negative parts with respective frequencies followed by the response of the
attitudinal statements. The analysis has been done in social side, cultural side, and economic
side, environmental side and overall or general assessment.

45
Social Impact of Tourism

The Table no 4, 5 and 6 are discussed here together.

Major items of positive social impacts as per table 4 are the coming out from the local
conservativeness to modernity in the positive sense; literacy rate is increasing and traditional
popular belief or superstition or even profession is being replaced by the mixing of the tourists
who have a fair understanding of modern ideas, values and behavior. Living standard of the
community is increasing and they receive the tourist and tourism with welcoming attitudes.
Different developmental and infrastructural activities are going on in the area and it had been
mentioned by most of the respondents (36.67%). Also the community has got this conviction
that now Cox’s Bazar is a popular destination-is also mentioned by some local respondents. One
respondent informed that once this area was deficit in food grain and now it is self-sufficient
partly as because of growing consciousness by coming to the contact of tourist and thus to meet
their food demand.

On negative social aspects, the key informant and the local residents informed that social
instability is growing over harnessing the benefit of tourism. As a result crime rate is getting
higher unexpectedly. One dangerous menace as informed by the respondents is prostitution or
moral erosion in the area. Even killing in the hotels is on the rise. Drug addiction, child and
women trafficking have also been recorded with the force of tourism.

Residents’ attitudes or perceptions to the social impact shows that almost 96.7% respondents
agreed with the statement that household standard of living of the area has got higher because of
the money that tourist spend in Cox’s Bazar. 73.4% respondents agreed to the increase of
infrastructure for local people through tourism. Again 56.6% and 56.7% agreed respectively on
the rise of crime from tourism development and the division of local community over the sharing
of tourism benefit. Significant positive agreement came on the issues that tourism has a positive
advantage on the respondents’ family (73.4%) and overall agreement by the respondents about
the advantage of tourism impact on Cox’s Bazar social life is 76.6%. Almost 80% of the
respondents came to the same opinion that tourism gives benefits to a small group of people in
the area.

46
Now if we analyse together, we see that increase of infrastructure, high living standard and
overall positive image of tourism as a dividend-maker, gradual increase of literacy rate and
infuse of modernity from the visitors are the good sides. The reason is still tourism is at
developing stage and people are having benefits on different angles. According to Butler initially
the attitude of the residents is ‘euphoria’ and then slowly with the development of tourism it goes
to ‘antagonism’. Again it is well established hypothesis in tourism research that so long tourism
produces ‘good’ it is seen positive and in exception it becomes ‘negative’. On the other hand the
negative sides that are evident from tourism are the increase of crime, social division over
tourism benefit, prostitution and confinement of tourism benefit to limited hands. Some of the
respondents spoke elaborately on the ominous moral erosion in Cox’s Bazar tourism showed in
box no- 1. As argued by Dogan (1989) the development of tourism may lead to a decline in
moral values by increasing materialisation of human relations. Hence, the non-economic
relations and community spirit begin to loose their importance in the community.

Box no-1: Moral Erosion/ Prostitution is on the Rise

The respondents told on the condition of anonymity that prostitution is rising unabatedly. A group of
people including hotel owners, brokers, rickshaw pullers and the local women are in a circle to do this
prostitution business. Even some hotels are conducting this business using school and college going girls.
This is very ominous for the tourism in future. The local community is still very much conservative and
tries to live as per their social tradition and also showing good demeanor to the tourism development. But
if the present trend goes on, the local public sentiment will shift to the antagonism and so for the sake of
tourism, moral perversion or prostitution is to be checked with strong hand.

Moreover, in relatively small resort towns like Cox’s Bazar, increased population and crowd
especially in peak seasons cause noise, pollution, and traffic congestion. In the high season,
infrastructures are stretched beyond their limits, and overcrowding and traffic congestion often
cause inconveniences to local residents. This situation obviously hinders the use of public areas
such as parks, gardens, and beaches as well as the provision of local services, which may
partially result in friction between residents and tourists.

47
Cultural Impact of Tourism

The Table no 7, 8 and 9 are discussed here together.

Major positive cultural impacts as recorded by the key informant and local residents in their
interview is the cultural exchange between the host and the tourist resulting change in clothing,
language, food habit and growing openness in terms of mixing and learning from the tourists.
One of the local respondents termed this bridging as ‘information linkage’. On the negative
consequences, the feelings are the gradual and total fading of traditional culture and breaking of
the traditional conservativeness. Now the residents perception to the cultural statements include
that 76.6% agreed with mean 2.17 that tourism encourages a variety of cultural activities being
participated by the local population. The mean 2.17 with 1.23 SD indicates that the respondents
agreed but they still suffer from inconsistence as the mean is within agree (2) to undecided (3)
items of the scale. Again 90% shows agreement that tourism has brought change in local
traditional life style with 10% undecided and no percentage of disagreement.

Now, if we match the attitudes with the interview outcome, both the attitudes of the cultural
impact are on strong convergence. But one respondent observed that Rakhain community, a
small tribe in Cox’s Bazar, is becoming smaller, and some respondents are against the breaking
of the traditional culture and conservativeness. One of the Rakhain respondents elaborated the
gradually diminishing culture of the community in the box no-2. It is not unlikely that some
people will go against flow of tourism mostly who are not involved in tourism businesss or not
receiving any benefit from tourism. Williams (2004) discusses that local attitudes, values and
behaviour can change from observing outside visitors. In developing countries this can also
result in bitterness as local residents find themselves incapable to imitate the lifestyle and
products they are observing. Probably the antagonistic residents fall to this community.

48
 Box no-2: Rakhain Community and their culture are at stake.
The Rakhain community is thought to be the oldest resident in Cox’s Bazar. They had the illustrious
tradition, heritage and attractive life style and different famous pagodas to see. But with the passage of
time most of those are on the wane. Tourism has also contributed to the defacing traditions of this
gradually diminishing community. Once they were in large numbers and used to do business and shops at
‘Burmese Market’ with their own hand-made clothes and crafts. The advents of tourism in Cox’s Bazar
and the ever-changing social and political scenario have pocketsized this small community in the area.
The situation further compounded by the high illiteracy rate, financial incapability and being minority.
The tourism got its influence on this community as they had valuable land property in the form of
agricultural land, shrine or pagodas and homestead. The powerful coterie and land grabbers have
occupied most of their land and pagodas for tourism-related business development. Some land grabbings
by the influential people are cited here as per record of a respondent from the Rakhain community.
a. Cheainda Midhachori High School was once the school for the Rakhain. Some politically powerful
people occupied it and finally at the face of losing it by the courts’ directives they gifted to the school.
b. The present Baitush Saraf Scool had been built on the land of the Rakhains.
c. The present Baharchara residential area was the land of the Rakhain community which they lost to the
local community.
d. The Rakhain pagoda (locally known as ‘Jadi’) at Bailla Para and Gonar Para are at present about to be
occupied.
So the Rakhain community is at a vulnerable situation with their livelihood, culture and tradition.

Economic Impact of Tourism

The Table no 10, 11 and 12 are discussed here together.
The economic impact of the tourism industry is usually assessed at the macroeconomic level and
can be measured in several different ways. The most general measurement focuses on tourism
receipts and the contribution of tourism to a country’s GDP. Table-19 presents international
tourism receipts of Bangladesh from 1990 to 2000 to 2005.

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 Table 19: International Tourism in Bangladesh since 1990 to 2005

Country International Tourist Arrivals International Tourism Receipts

Thousands of persons Average Value (US $) Average As % of
annual growth annual growth exports of
(%) (%) goods and
services
1990 2000 2005 1990- 2000- 1990 2000 2005 1990- 2000-
2000 2005 2000 2005
Bangladesh 115 199 208 5.6 0.9 11 50 70 16.3 7.0 0.7
(Compiled by the author)

The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) developed by the United Nations and the World Tourism
Organization is the most systematic measurement of the economic impact and contribution of
tourism at the national level. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the
TSA is based on a demand side concept of economic activity, because the tourism industry does
not produce or supply a homogeneous product or services like many traditional industries.
Instead the travel and tourism industry is defined by a diverse collection of products (durables
and non-durables) and services (transportation, accommodation, food, beverage, entertainment,
government services, etc) that are diverse to the visitors. It is important for policy–makers at
national and local level to see that this diversity has many complex links to all parts of the
economy. This makes the economic impact of tourism so significant for development.
However, the answer of the experts and residents in relation positive economic sides include the
employment generation, money circulation in the local economy, investment in the tourism
business, and income generating activities. Among them 100% key informant and 63.33%of the
residents agreed that employment generation is the major thrust of tourism in Cox’s Bazar for the
local community. One of the key informants extensively described the employment scenario in
Cox’s Bazar tourism presented in the box no-3. Both the respondents also identified that
Government is getting revenue from the tourism in Cox’s Bazar. The major negative
consequences as identified by the both types of respondents are price-hike of the essentials, high
land valuation, poor’s land grabbing by the powerful people and outward flow of earned-money
from tourism in Cox’s Bazar. The other impacts, may be with less thrust, are seasonality of jobs,
non-local control of tourism business in Cox’s Bazar and less preference to the local community
in the tourism jobs.

50
 Box no-3: Employment scenario in Cox’s Bazar tourism
One of the respondents as the leading local tourism business man while giving answers came up with his
own statistics about the employment the tourism in Cox’s Bazar offering as part of his association with
the tourism since inception. Now Cox’s Bazar has 154 restaurants for food supply to the tourists and each
of them employs on average 22 assistants. The total figure of assistants stands for 3388 persons. Then for
tourists Cox’s Bazar has 220 hotels and guest houses, and each employs on average 20 people and thus
the total account is 4400. Again altogether Cox’s Bazar tourism registers 54 tour operators and guide
houses in which on average 15 persons work in each company and thus total figure is 810 persons
working in the tour operators. Again on average 5000 construction workers are doing and maintaining
family by building hotels, motels and guesthouses and so on. Many local people including students are
working as tourist guides, doing jinuk business, rent-a-car business, land business, opening departmental
stores, hiring umbrella on the sea beach locally known as ‘kit-kot’, driving small playing vehicles on the
beach locally known as ‘z-ski’ and so on. The calculation of the respondents was that around altogether
10000 people are working in the tourism sector in Cox’s Bazar and each person maintains a family of 6
persons, then this tourism industry is giving food to the 60000 people. As per his subjective assessment
local-nonlocal employment ratio is almost balanced, 50%-50%.

On the other hand the perceptions of the local respondents to the 12 statements on economic
impact showed a good agreement with the above discussion. 96.7% respondents were on strong
agreement, with mean 1.73 and SD 0.52, that tourism is advantageous on employment
generation. The 100% respondents, with mean 1.10 and SD .31, were of the same opinion that
tourism attracts more investment in Cox’s Bazar. While asked for scoring a respondent’s pocket
money whether it is of tourism origin, 66.6% respondent agreed positively and 30% disagreed.

The level of agreement on the statements of ‘Non-local-owned businesses are beneficial for the
area’s tourist industry’ and ‘Most of the money earned from tourism ends up going to out of the
local companies’ is the same, 76.7%. It means that local residents are welcoming non-local
business people and their transaction which would have been better if it were further invested.
When asked to scale out on giving the government incentive to tourism development, 50%
respondents came out on disagreement and 46.7% agreed for government support to the tourism
industry.

51
On the statement “There should be a specific tax on tourists”, 50% respondents agreed with the
statement and 43.3% disagreed on the move. The respondents apprehended that in that case the
tourists will not come to Cox’s Bazar. Most surprisingly for the statements “Prices of many
goods and services in the area have increased because of tourism” and “Tourism development
increases property prices (e.g., land)” the level of agreement of the respondents is 100% each. It
is very common inflation, ascribed to tourism is a major complaint. For the high price of land in
Cox’s Bazar can be attributed to limited land along the beach and competition among rich
people, business people and developers and repeated Government assurance to make Cox’s
Bazar an international destination. 76.6% of the respondents came to the disagreement with the
statement “Tourism creates more jobs for foreigners than for local people in the region”. It
implies that foreign nationals are not yet turning in large numbers to Cox’s Bazar for tourism–
related jobs. It is also understandable that Cox’s Bazar is a domestic tourists’ destination, with
some thousands of foreign nationals.

Advantage of tourism for Cox’s Bazar economy and its impact on Bangladesh Government’s
income registered agreement in the level of 90% and 86.7% respectively. Normally contribution
of tourism economy to GDP is the indicator of its national importance. Table 20 shows the
international tourism’s contribution to Bangladesh economy and no data is available on the
contribution of domestic tourism in Cox’s Bazar to Bangladesh GDP.

Now if we combine the respondents information with the scoring of the attitudes to economic
statements, it is very much clear that investment in Cox’s Bazar tourism, job creation for the
people including the locals, increasing trend of business and commerce are positive sides. The
negative economic consequences of tourism in Cox’s Bazar include inflation in the area and high
land price. Overall speaking, the economic impact of tourism in Cox’s Bazar is being distributed
to local and non-local residents of the area following the trickle-down theory of economic
benefits and could be commented that tourism is still community friendly.

52
Environmental Impacts of Tourism

The Table no 13, 14 and 15 are discussed here together.

A good majority of the both types of respondents on open-ended questions came with the
statement that tourism in Cox’s Bazar has no positive impact on the local environment. It is
relevant to note that the local respondents probably misunderstood the word ‘environment’ for
their local surrounding that we say from sociological viewpoint. Here the use of word
‘environment” was somewhat technical in the sense of applicability and required careful
attention. Still only a couple of local respondents informed that tourism had positive impact on
environment. The rest majority did not inform any linkage between the tourism impact and
positive environmental aspect. 70% of the key respondents opined that “there is no positive
impact of tourism on environment in Cox’s Bazar”. Though scanty in percentage, 10% each for
each negative side, observed some good sides of tourism on environment: awareness to
environmental conservation on the rise and Labonee to Sea Crown point being free from bad
smell.

On negative front, many issues very much adversely relevant to the environment surfaced
specially from the contribution of the key respondents. 60% key informant and 16.67% informed
that hill cutting in Cox’s Bazar is quite common and uncontrollable. Some key informants and a
few local respondents informed that hill cutting and forest defacing caused land slide and thus
took toll of human lives every year. Still it went on because land is very costly and both grabbers
and poor were cutting the hills and then flattened area was sold out at higher prices. These all
are going before the nose of the administration. The consequence of hill cutting in Cox’s Bazar
caused a powerful landslide in recent days and elaborated in the box no-4.

53
 Box No-4: 45 killed in Cox’s Bazar landslide

A series of powerful landslides triggered by torrential rains overnight killed at least 45 people including
six army personnel, on June 15, 2010 in southeastern sea resort town of Cox's Bazar district. The
mudslides occurred at different parts including the district town and Himchhari ECB camps, leaving 45
people dead- 31 people were killed in Teknaf, six in Ukhia, two in the district headquarters and six in the
Himchhari army camp. Officials and witnesses said of the dead 45 people including six army soldiers lost
their lives under tonnes of mud at their shanties and a makeshift military camp at Himchhari area near the
Cox's Bazar sea beach as army engineering corps was engaged to construct a marine drive road from
Cox's Bazar to Teknaf, a frontier town, linking Bangladesh with Myanmar.

Landslides caused by downpours appeared to be a growing concern particularly in Cox’s Bazar while
environmental watchdogs were virtually screaming for years against hill cuts in Cox’s Bazar and its
suburbs to develop infrastructures for tourism development, low-lying land filling, marine drive
construction and residential uses defying rules as an expert study said over 100 hills disappeared while
hundreds others were partially destroyed in recent years to cause frequent mudslides.

It is to be noted that Bangladesh witnessed its worst landslide in recent decades on June 13, 2007 when
123 people were buried alive under tonnes of mud rolled out from the hills on the dwelling houses built at
hill slopes at the southeastern port city of Chittagong and the reason was rampant hill cutting and clearing
the hills cover violating the government’s strict ban.
Source: The daily Star, June 16, 2010; The New Nation, June 16, 2010

40% key respondent and 33.33% local residents opined that the drainage system is weak in
Cox’s Bazar and in hotel motel zone there is no sewage and waste disposal system. As a result
wastes including human excreta are directly drained to the sea water without any treatment. As a
result Labonee point to Sea Crown point at Kalatali is full of bad smells.

A good number of local respondents (16%) brought the unplanned and spurious growth of hotels
and motels along the beach as menace because it caused loss to the natural environment. Some
hotels were built so close to the beach that some of the structures are taken away by the sea every
year and thus beach environment is degrading.
A small number of key informant (20%) and local residents (13.33%) observed that Rohyinga
refugees are a menace to the visitors and threat to the required environment of tourism. They vex

54
the tourist and run after them. They are making thatched houses on the beach and spoiling the
natural environment. Other noteable bad sides as informed by the respondents (percentages are
negligible for each item, just 3.33% each) are: mass tourism in Cox’s Bazar, beach littering and
water pollution.

Now the perception of the residents to the impact of tourism on the environment showed that
100% respondents agreed that tourism development in Cox’s Bazar increased the traffic
problems. A large number of respondents (76.7%) positively scored that the construction of
hotels and other tourist facilities had destroyed the natural environment in the region whereas
only 16.6% objected the statement and 3.3 % remain undecided. On asking whether ‘tourism
produces long-term negative effects on the environment’ , 73.4% of the respondents agreed with
mean 2.17 and SD 1.23 which implied that the local respondents are aware of the long term
environmental risks that the present unsystematic tourism is posing. But conflicting observation
by the respondents to the statement ‘Tourism provides an incentive for the conservation /
restoration of natural resources’ is in the level of agreement by 43.4% though the level of
disagreement is somewhat greater, just half, 50%. It can be explained that the term
‘environment’ might be misconstrued and still opining tourism as friendly to the environment.
Again the advantage of tourism on environment can be supplemented by the level of agreement
(46.6%) on the statement ‘Overall, how advantageous are the impacts of tourism on the
environment?’ Here also the level of disagreement is a bit smaller (43.3%). It could be concluded
that impact of tourism on environment in Cox’s Bazar is not that hot-issue and that’s why the
respondents could not form a clear opinion on the statements. Probably this conflict could be
answered with the level of agreement (80%) to the statement that ‘This community should
control tourism development’ and 20% were on disagreement with the statement.

So combining the perception of the residents and the information from both types of respondents
through open ended questions it is seen that tourism in Cox’s Bazar have no or negligible
contribution to the conservation or restoration of the environment. But it has, on the negative
side, caused hill cutting, forest clearance and unplanned growth of hotel-motel-guest house
buildings along the beach.

55
The table no 16 and 17 are discussed here to get the fair idea on overall impact of tourism on
the residents and also to relate own observations with those. On asking to the key informants
whether tourism is well managed in Cox’s Bazar, almost 90% responded negatively that tourism
in Cox’s Bazar is not well managed. Some local residents on their giving interview for open-
ended questions gave some remarks and if they are tied logically it stands that ‘tourism is a
passport to peace. It is not a source of earning money, it is a service. In Bangladesh tourism
means Cox’s Bazar where the popular conviction is that building hotel means tourism. There is
no concept of tourism management in Cox’s Bazar and it should be developed in the way that it
should contain local social and cultural components’.

In the residents’ perception to the overall impact of tourism statements, 100% respondents were
in agreement that strict laws are needed to protect the environment from tourism encroachment.
On cultural front the respondent agreed (63.3%) that tourism development increases the number
of recreational opportunities for local residents. From social or personal perspective 96.7% were
on agreement that they are proud by living in Cox’s Bazar which provides tourism opportunities.
63.4% of the residents perceived that tourism activities should have a user fee system (i.e. fee on
using infrastructural facilities of tourism). A level of 90% respondents came in agreement for
both the statements that the benefits of tourism are greater than the cost to the people of the area
and finally the district itself. Even at this crossroad a significant number of the respondents
(73.4%) were in agreement that government and the community should take step to restrict or
control tourism development in Cox’s Bazar.

The reason can be that the growth of tourism in the area is already over-grown and might be
economically feasible in the long run. Even can be unsustainable considering the long term
exposure of the society which may loose its cultural and social traits which are unique to offer
and essential for its living and sustainability.

In general understanding from the above discussion it can be said that the local respondents are
more positive in their evaluation of impact of tourism for Cox’s Bazar. They may witness some
minor problems, but as a whole they assume that such problems are a price well worth paying.
They feel that even though they are the primary gainers from tourism, they are also the ones who
suffer most from its effects.

56
 Chapter 6: Conclusion and Reflection on the Study

6.1: Conclusion

Besides taking interview by using open-ended questionnaire to the key informants (n=10) and
the local residents (second section of the questionnaire no-2, number of question 3 & n=30) this
study has also made an attempt to identify the residents’ perceptions of the impacts of tourism in
Cox’s Bazar town using a tourism impact scale. In order to determine the underlying dimensions
of the perceived impacts of tourism by local residents, a 35-item tourism impact scale was
administered to the local residents (n=30, the same local residents, section 3 and questionnaire
no-2).

In brief the study has found that the local residents perceived the economic aspects of tourism
impact most favourably. Residents also evaluated social and cultural impacts of tourism
positively. These findings provide support for the next studies in days to come. However, quality
of environment, community attitude, and crowding and congestion were found to be the least
favourable aspects of tourism impact in Cox’s Bazar.

According to Shaw & Williams (2004) it is possible to prevent negative outcomes and promote
positive outcomes through sustainable tourism as it can protect the social environment of a
destination. The also argue that integrating the needs and ways of life of the local community in
relation to development of tourism is necessary to prevent problems as conflicts and negative
outcomes for the local culture.

Choi & Sirakaya (2005) Explains that sustainable tourism shall improve quality of life for the
host community and at the same time provide a quality experience for the visitor and maintain
the environment which both the host community and the visitor depend. This definition is also
supported by Richards & Hall (2000).

Griffin (2002) argues that to reach a positive outcome concerning sustainability depends on how
well the tourism industry and authorities respond to future tourism development. Hunter (2002)
mentions that sustainable tourism should be closely integrated with all other activities that occur
within the host region.

57
In line with the research finding it is possible to say that compared to the international tourist
destination and the offerings they have, tourism in Cox’s Bazar is still at its infancy. This is
traditional mass tourism and should be promoted to ecotourism as suggested by the respondents.
It is also to be taken into consideration that though at its beginning, with more positive impacts
on economic and cultural and social fronts, this tourism has already caused some negative
impacts on social and environmental sides which are to be ameliorated by the concerned
authority taking step just now. Then these odds could be mitigated and local community will be
benefited and ultimately the bonus will go to the tourism. It is now worldwide accepted that
without linking tourism no tourism can be sustainable because they are the primary receptor of
the good and odds of tourism. If they go antagonistic, then tourism will not develop there. Upon
this basis, our tourism authority will take steps at least to the negative consequences so far
explored out by this research for the greater interest of the local community and successful
tourism in Cox’s Bazar. This research has received many suggestions from the key informants
and more strict control of the tourism industry is needed by the government to protect the interest
of the social community.

In Bangladesh the majority of government agencies have historically, for the most part, taken a
back seat in tourism development, seemingly happy to allow the private sector to drive forward
the industry in their countries and regions. They have been equally happy to collect taxes from
successful operations, providing little or no assistance to struggling initiatives. As a result,
benefits derived by communities from tourism have in the past been created and received more
by accident than design or in a few cases have been engineered by the more philanthropically
minded private tourism businesses or NGOs.

More recently, a range of factors have contributed to government agencies taking greater
interest, committing funds and time to collaborative projects and playing a crucial role in the
planning, development and management of tourism initiatives. The factors that have help to
bring about this step change in governments’ approach include: the awareness of the importance
of tourism as a global, national and regional socio-economic engine; the potential for tourism to
contribute to environmental management and enhancement; the profile of tourism as a tool for
international development and regeneration; increased lobbying by industry, NGOs and tourism
organizations.

58
The foregoing study has clearly demonstrated that tourism is playing a good role in socio-
cultural, economic and environmental development in Cox’s Bazar. It is often necessary to
develop and implement policies that take advantage of the potential benefits of tourism in socio-
economic development. In some cases this is simply a matter of increasing awareness so that the
joint benefits to tourists and local communities can be ‘factored-in” at the planning stage. In
other cases it may involve reducing leakages (or retaining tourist spending). In other cases
affirmative action may need to be taken to capture the benefits.
Some of them are highlighted here with the issues to be addressed obtained from content analysis
so that the tourism development in Cox’s Bazar becomes sustainable and examplery for other
parts of the globe.

A well designed tourism policy is of immense importance for tourism development at

Bangladesh backdrop including Cox’s Bazar. The format of tourism is changing rapidly from
mass tourism to sustainable tourism, then to ecotourism. Now worldwide we also hear of ‘geo-
tourism’ and ‘green tourism’. We have in force and the government has already formulated a
modern draft version ‘The Tourism Policy 2009’ replacing the Tourism Policy 1992
accommodating many new ideas and emphasizing the conservation of the local community and
local natural environment. Cox’s Bazar has got special attention at the draft policy.

A Master Plan for Cox’s Bazar is much-heard for long. Any tourism venture to establish
following all rules and regulations and necessary approval takes months together and then one
has to start his construction of hotel or motel or any tourism enterprise. Even the government
offices concerned with tourism matters are not well coordinated. So those laws could be brought
under the same authority, say ‘Tourism Authorisation Committee in Cox’s Bazar’ for quick
disposal of the matter.

There should be specific law to protect the local community people and their well-being in the
form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by the tourism companies.

ETZ came up as a strong recommendation to be fulfilled for foreign tourists so that they think
themselves at home and will get international tourism facilities in the form of 3S (Sea, Sun and

59
Sex) or 4S (Sea, Sun, Sand and Sex). ETZ will get the status like a ‘foreign land’ within home.
In that case conservative local community will not feel ‘cultural shock’ or are alienated in their
own locality.

Cox’s Bazar Pouroshova has no modern drainage system and waste dumping ground. Even the
Hotel-Motel Zone along the beach has no drainage facilities and waste disposal and treatment
system. All wastes are thrown away too the sea directly without any treatment. As a result, the
beach environment is degrading and thus the community feeling seems to be antagonistic to the
tourism from the research experience.

Buildings are being made adjacent to the beaches which are causing loss to the natural
environment and spoiling the beauty of the sea. So restriction should be put on building hotels in
the name tourism along the beach.

Environmental standards for drinking water, bathing water, wastewater and air emissions are to
be incorporated in Environmental Regulation for the tourism area. Guidelines could also be
developed for open space and densities of new developments. This will ensure local people from
going to conflict with the tourist in high tourism season on public use items.

Traffic management schemes should be introduced in Cox’s Bazar as it had been at the top as
one of negative impact of tourism. Cox’s Bazar is a small township and all sorts of big and small
vehicles get into the city and many accidents including tourists’ vehicles were recorded. So big
inter-district buses should not allow entering into the city area.

Mostly domestic tourists visit Cox’s Bazar in millions in high season. The infrastructure facilities
of Cox’s Bazar are not enough to support them. So to avoid conflict with the tourist and to make
it round the year restriction on tourist number to visit Cox’s Bazar could be considered.

A Tourism Training Institute at Cox’s Bazar for tourisms and local youths can be established to
help the local community and the investors most for producing efficient hospitality people for
Cox’s Bazar tourism.

60
Social security and safety have great impact on tourism development in any region like
Bangladesh. Security system is not modern in Cox’s Bazar. Most of the respondents mentioned
that crime is on the rise and it is centering tourism. Killings are happening in the hotels. Due to
kidnapping and hijacking issues, foreign tourists are reluctant to stay longer period in Cox’s
Bazar.
To the other world Bangladesh is known for floods and poverty. So Cox’s Bazar should be
advertised more and more through local and international media. Very recently Bangladesh
government branded Bangladesh as “Beautiful Bangladesh”.

Cox's Bazaar needs to be advertised properly on the popular tourist related web sites. There
should be coordination of information and services between these websites and popular hotels,
restaurants, shops and travel services of Cox's Bazaar. We need to take pragmatic steps to
develop and update our websites to increase international tourist flow. For instance, Cambodia
has its tourism websites in eight languages; Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia in 12 languages, and
we have ours only in one language, English. One shocking information is that BPC website does
not contain any recent statistics of tourist arrival, revenue earning, contribution to GDP, etc that
were required for this study.
Visa policy of government is one of the main reasons behind the foreign tourists’ unwillingness
to visit Bangladesh. If the government lifts visa restrictions for visitors from Europe, USA and
other western countries, around 20 lakh foreign tourists will come to Bangladesh in a couple of
years. Now it requires about 15 to 20 days for a Bangladeshi visa even for a European citizen
(The Daily Star, May 29, 2008).

6.2: Reliability and Validity

For the matter of reliability and checking procedural flaws the researcher was always in touch
with the supervisor. Being a new field of research worldwide, specially perception study of the
local residents in the impact of tourism, different scholarly materials were collected and gone
through for necessary confidence and doing the research in the truest sense of the term. Again
triangulation was always followed for the validity of data and research process and finally in the
processing of data. Content or desk study was done to bridge the gap in the discussion part and to
come up with recommendations.

61
6.3: Answers to the Research Questions and objectives
Once again the asking in the research questions and the desire of the objectives were exploring
the impact of tourism in Cox’s Bazar and finding out the issues to be addressed to bridge the
gaps. It is evident from the discussion that the impact of tourism in Cox’s Bazar is in set on four
fronts. Positive sides are very prominent in the sense that local residents are getting benefits. On
environment side no positive consequence is marked by the respondents. But negative
consequences on four sides are very conspicuous which are already mentioned in the discussion
part. However the major findings of the research study about impact of tourism on the local
community in Cox’s Bazar Township is summed up in the table 20.

Table 20: Major Impacts of tourism on the local community in Cox’s Bazar Township

Positive Impact of Tourism Negative Impact Of tourism

Social Aspect Social Aspect
a. Increase of infrastructure a. Increase of crime
b. High living standard b. Prostitution/moral erosion increases
c. Gradual increase of literacy rate c. Social division over tourism benefits
d. Infuse of modernity from the visitors
Cultural Aspect
Cultural Aspect
a. Fading of traditional culture
a. Cultural exchange between host and tourists. b. Breaking of the traditional conservativeness
b. Change in clothing, language and food habit. c. Rakhain community becoming smaller

Economic Aspect
Economic Aspect
a. Inflation
a. investment in tourism
b. High land price
b. Job creation for the local community
c. Increasing trend of business and commerce
Environmental Aspect
Environmental Aspect a. Hill cutting
a. No positive impact on the community b. Forest clearance
b. Awareness to environment growing slowly.
c. Unplanned growth of buildings along beach

In response to an open-ended question to both the experts and local respondents on their
suggestion what issues are to be addressed for successful tourism in Cox’s Bazar, they came up

62
with big list of things to be addressed and here only the practically doable suggestions are
accommodated in the table 21 and then explained in brief with some more recommendations
from the content analysis.

Table 21: List of suggestions from key-informant and respondents with frequency
Issues to be addressed for Cox’s Bazar Tourism (Major Items) Number of key Number of
informant resident
(N=10) (N=30)
1. A well-defined land use policy. 2
2. A well-designed tourism policy is urgent. 2 3
3. A master plan for Cox’s Bazar incorporating experts from different aspects. 5 3
4. A powerful coordination and authorization committee with concerned offices and
professionals to supervise the tourism activities including growth of buildings. 7 4

5. Ecotourism should be promoted in place of present mass tourism. 3 2

6. Number of visitors should be controlled during peak season. 2 1
7. Cox’s Bazar to Teknaf is to be declared as ETZ. 2 8
8. Experienced and dedicated tourism developers/entrepreneurs are to be patronized. 2 1
9. A Tourism institute can be set up at Cox’s Bazar to produce tourism professionals. 2 6
10. Many tourists are being taken away at ebb time by the sea. So sea-netting can be 1 4
moored in the selected area. Yasir Life Guard (YLG) is now helping the tourists.

11. Cox’s Bazar city has no modern drainage system, wastes dumping ground and 5 5
waste treatment and recycling facilities.

12. The tourists should be secured by deploying TP at from Kalatoli to Sea Crown. 4 8
13. “Advertisement promotes selling (Prachare prasar)” should be the basis for 2 4
Cox’s Bazar for international selling as a tourism destination.

14. Dance club/ disco bar/ casino/ bar etc could be specially arranged for the 2
international tourists.

In light of the above discussion it is seen that both research question one (What are the positive
and negative impact of tourism in Cox’s Bazar?) and research objective one (To investigate into
the impacts of tourism development and associated activities in the study area.) are answered in
the table 20 by arranging both the evident and distinct positive and negative impacts of tourism
as identified in the discussion and analysis chapter.

63
Again for the research question two (What are the issues to be addressed for improving the
current situation of tourism in Cox’s Bazar?) and research objective two (To explore possible
ways of improvement of the current situation ) are answered by arranging the major issues to be
addressed in the table 21 to ameliorate the negative impact of tourism and boost up the positive
sides both for the local community and the tourism industry itself.

From the present research it can be safely said that there is a strong case for considering tourism
as an important sector in socio-economic, cultural and environmental development with the
significant involvement of the local communities in Cox’s Bazar tourism.

6.4: Concluding Remark

There is not a single exhaustive research report on impact of tourism in Cox’s Bazar. Modern
tourism is not a service; it is an industry known as ‘Hospitality Industry’. To make a destination
popular and known worldwide, it is to be grown in a balanced way. Carrying capacity (CC),
Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) and ISO certification for tourism business, marketing and
environment are quite popular in the international destinations. Again nowadays level of
community linkage, visitor management including segmentation and positioning, and tourist
satisfaction are popular research items around the world. Again perception study like the present
research study is taken as a panacea to measure out the residents’ reaction to the impact of
tourism. Here it has been undertaken to see the impact type and feel of pulse of the local peoples’
attitudes about the ongoing tourism activities in Cox’s Bazar. Unfortunately there is no modern
research conducted in any of the topic discussed here in Cox’s Bazar backdrop. So the upcoming
researcher should carry out exploration on those above mentioned items on Cox’s Bazar tourism.
Even the present study could be persued by others to establish a trend in tourism research in
perception study and justify the present study. In that case this study will receive its authenticity
and trend-setting mark.

64
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 Annex I

Questionnaire No 1: For Key Informant

Date:

Name:

Telephone/Address:

Occupation:

Schooling:

Location:

National/Regional/Local Organizations or Associations, which you belong to:

1. Is it beneficial to the community?

2. What are the positive environmental impacts of tourism on the area? (Any negative
impact?)

3. What are the positive economic impacts of tourism on the area? (Any negative impact?)

4. What are the positive social impacts of tourism on the area? (Any negative impact?)

5. What are the positive cultural impacts of tourism on the area? (Any negative impact?)

6. What are the other impacts of coastal tourism in Cox’s Bazar (if any)?

7. Do you think tourism in Cox’s Bazar is well managed? If not, what are the issues to be
addressed?

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 Annex II

Questionnaire No 2: Resident Survey

Personal Information

1. Date:

2. Name of the Respondent:

3. village/Para:

4. Marital status:

5. Gender:

6. Household size: Occupation: Income:

7. Schooling:

8. Age:

9. Length of Residence:

Asking for Impacts of Tourism in Cox’s Bazar

10. What are the positive sides of tourism in your area (3 good Sides)?

11. What are the adverse sides of tourism in your area (3 bad sides)?

12. What are your suggestions for future tourism development in Cox’s Bazar?

Residents’ attitudes towards impacts of tourism:

Tourism Statements 1 2 3 4 5

I. Social Impacts
1. Tourism has led to an increase of infrastructure for local people. 1 2 3 4 5
2. Tourism development increases crime in Cox’s Bazar. 1 2 3 4 5
3. Tourism causes division of local community. 1 2 3 4 5
4. Our household standard of living is higher because of the money that tourists 1 2 3 4 5
spend here.
5. How advantageous are the impacts of tourism on your family? 1 2 3 4 5
6. The quality of public services has improved due to more tourism in my 1 2 3 4 5
community.
7. Tourism gives benefits to a small group of people in the area. 1 2 3 4 5
8. Overall, how advantageous are the impacts of tourism on the social life of 1 2 3 4 5

69
Cox’s Bazar?
II. Cultural Impacts
9. Tourism encourages a variety of cultural activities by the local population 1 2 3 4 5
(e.g., crafts, arts, music).
10. Tourism has brought change in local traditional life style. 1 2 3 4 5
III. Economic Impacts
11. How advantageous are the impacts of tourism on the Cox’s Bazar 1 2 3 4 5
economy?
12. I have more money because of tourism in Cox’s Bazar. 1 2 3 4 5
13. How advantageous are the impacts of tourism on employment? 1 2 3 4 5
14. Non-local-owned businesses are beneficial for the area’s tourist industry. 1 2 3 4 5
15. Tourism creates more jobs for foreigners than for local people in the region. 1 2 3 4 5
16. Tourism attracts more investment in Cox’s Bazar. 1 2 3 4 5
17. There should be no government incentives for tourism development. 1 2 3 4 5
18. Prices of many goods and services in the area have increased because of 1 2 3 4 5
tourism.
19. There should be a specific tax on tourists. 1 2 3 4 5
20. Tourism development increases property prices (e.g., land). 1 2 3 4 5
21. Most of the money earned from tourism ends up going to out of the local 1 2 3 4 5
companies
22. Overall, how advantageous are the impacts of tourism on Bangladesh 1 2 3 4 5
government’s income?
IV. Environmental Impacts
23. Tourism produces long-term negative effects on the environment. 1 2 3 4 5
24. Tourism provides an incentive for the conservation / restoration of natural 1 2 3 4 5
resources.
25. The construction of hotels and other tourist facilities has destroyed the 1 2 3 4 5
natural environment in the region.
26. Tourism development increases the traffic problems. 1 2 3 4 5
27. This community should control tourism development. 1 2 3 4 5
28. Overall, how advantageous are the impacts of tourism on the environment? 1 2 3 4 5
V. Overall Impacts
29. Overall, the benefits of tourism are greater than the costs to to the people of 1 2 3 4 5
the area.
30. Tourism activities/services should have a user fee system. 1 2 3 4 5
31. Tourism development increases the number of recreational opportunities for 1 2 3 4 5
local residents.
32. We should take steps to restrict / control tourism development in Cox’s 1 2 3 4 5
Bazar.
33. Strict laws are needed to protect the environment. 1 2 3 4 5
34. I am proud to live in a place (Cox’s Bazar) that provides tourism 1 2 3 4 5
opportunities.
35. Overall, the benefits of tourism are greater than the costs to Cox’s Bazar as 1 2 3 4 5
a whole.

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Note: For statements 5, 8, 11, 13, 22 and 28, the scale ranged from 1 (very advantageous) to
5 (very disadvantageous), and for the remainder from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly dis-
agree).

If there are any additional comments that you would like to add please do so below.

Thank you

71
 Annex III

Questionnaire No 3: Control Group Questionnaire for Monkhali used in FGD

Personal Information

1. Date:

2. Name of the Respondent:

3. Village/Para:

4. Marital status:

5. Gender:

6. Household size:

7. Schooling:

8. Age:

9. Length of Residence:

Asking for Impacts of Tourism in Monkhali, Ukhia, Cox’s Bazar.

10. Do you have tourism in Monkhali? Any tourism infrastructure?

11. What is your main profession?

12. What sort of advantages do you get now from tourism? Any disadvantages?

13. Do you think tourism should be developed here?

14. If yes, what advantages do you hope to get (any 3)? Do you apprehend any disadvantages
(any 3)?

15. Have you ever been to Cox’s Bazar?

16. Your suggestion for developing tourism here (Monkhali).

72
 Annex IV
List of the Key-Informant interviewed through questionnaire 1 (Annex I)
Name of the Address
Respondent
Mr Jasim Uddin ADM, DC Office, Cox’s Bazar.
Tel. - 0341-63269/ 01712011597
Omar Faruk CEO, Zilla Parishad, Cox’s Bazar
Nurul Alam Nizami ADC (G), DC Office, Cox’s
Bazar, Tel.-0341-63295
Sarwar Kamal Mayor, Cox’s Bazar Pourashova,
Cell-01817000125
Sujit Borua Manager, Motel Saibal, BPC.
Tel.-0341-63274.
Md. Abdur Rahman Assistant Conservator of Forest
(ACF), Divisional Forest Office
(South), Cox’s Bazar. Cell-
01711064519.
Abul Kasem Sikder Secretary, HMGHOA, Cox’s
Bazar & President, BD ROA,
Cox’s Bazar & President,
Community Police, Zone-1, Cox’s
Bazar.
S. M. Kibria Khan Founder President, TOAC &
Chairman, Business Forum, Cox’s
Bazar & Owner, Food Village
Café, Cox’s Bazar.
Tel.-0341-51043/ 01715879117
Mr Nazrul Islam Field Manager, NACOM, Cox’s
Bazar. Cell-01911055575.
Bijon Chandra Branch Manager, BASTOB,
Mondal Cox’s Bazar. Cell-01716264557
73
Tourism Involvement
Involved in Master Plan preparation
for Cox’s Bazar
Implementing tourism-related projects
in Cox’s Bazar.
Member, BMC, and supervise
Tourism Cell
Implements different projects for
Cox’s Bazar township
Member-Secretary, BMC.
Ecotourism Specialist and involved in
Master Plan for Tourism in Cox’s
Bazar.
Hotel, Motel and Restaurant business
and advocating for security to the
tourists.
Operating ship cruising to St. Martin’s
Island and actively involved in
different forum for tourism
development in Cox’s Bazar
NGO official working with
environment and local community.
NGO official working with socio-
economic development of local
community.
 Annex V

List of Residents in the semi-structured Questionnaire

Name of Residents Address Occupation & Education Years of

& Annual Income (AI) living in
Cox’s
Bazar
1.Salim Ullah Bahadur . Pook khali, Cox’s Bazar. Advocate. MA, LLB. 47
Married. Age-47. Cell-01817451200. AI- 288000/
2. Bishawjit Sen. 18, Main Road, Cox’s Bazar. Journalist. MA. 50
Married Age-50 AI-240000/=
3. Prof Azizur Rahman. Tek Para, Cox’s Bazar Hotel Business. MA. 47
Married. Age-47 AI-360000/=
4. Md Jafarullah Nuri. Rumaliar Chara, Cox’s Bazar Moulovi. Kamel. 49
Married. Age-49 Cell-01711280785 AI-360000/=
5. Md Faridul Alam. Bahar Chara, Cox’s Bazar. Cell- Teaching. MA. 42
Married. Age-42. 01819337351 AI-240000/=
6. Nurul Absar. Tekpara, Cox’s Bazar. Political Leader. BA. 56
Married. Age-56 Cell-01726080833 AI-300000/=
7. Matintin. Kyang Para, Cox’s Bazar. Cell- Job in Motel Saibal. SSC. 42
Married. Age-42 01711325722 AI-216000/=
8. Begum Sultana Dilruba Enderson Road, Cox’s Bazar. Teaching. MA. 28
Married. Age-57 Cell-01819818107
9. Matin Aye. Boro Bazar, Cox’s Bazar. Primary Teacher. BA. 42
Married Age-42. Cell-01556538096 AI-168000/=
10. Md Mokbul Hossain. Kalatali, Cox’s Bazar. Security Guard. Class V. 23
Married. Age-32 Cell-01816906282 AI-120000/=
11. Imran Ahmed. Bazarghata, Cox’s Bazar. Hotel Business. BA. 15
Married Age-35 Cell-01199231215 AI-300000/=
12. Nazrul Islam Bahar Chara, Cox’s Bazar. Contractor. Degree. 29
Married. Age-29 01812341040 AI-360000/=
13. Hafez Rana Kafi. Bahar Chara, Cox’s Bazar. Cell- Tour Operator. MA. 10
Married Age-37 01711458434 AI-600000/=
14. Md Suja Meah. Saikot Para, Cox’s Bazar. Mason. Class VIII. 23
Married Age-33 Cell-01815941388 AI-120000/=
15. AKM Sahidul Hoq. Kalatoli, Cox’s Bazar. Job in a Motel. SSC. 35
Married. Age-35 Cell-01812943504 AI-96000/=
16. Sultan Amed Jarjari Para, Cox’s Bazar. Fishing. Illiterate. 65
Married Age-65 AI-60000/=
17. Siddik Ahmed. Saikot Para, Cox’s Bazar. Headman, Forest Dept. 52
Married Age-52 Cell-01823733400 Class VII. AI-300000/=
18. Safiul Alam. Kalatoli, Cox’s Bazar. Sub-contractor. Illiterate. 57
Married Age-57 Cell-01819605429 AI-420000/=
19. Md Nurul Hoque. Kutubdia Para, Cox’s Bazar. Rickshawpuller. Illiterate. 24
Married. Age-24 AI-72000/=
20. Md Gius Uddin. Bahar Chara, Cox’s Bazar. Cell- Student. Degree. 24

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Unmarried. Age-24 01916006719 AI-100000/=
21. Nurul Absar. Rumaliar Chara, Cox’s Bazar. Motel business. SSC. 50
Married. Age-60 Cell-01711386870 AI-240000/=
22. Zunaid Chy. Bazarghata, Cox’s Bazar. Local NGO official. MSc. 35
Married. Age-35 Cell-01713175060 AI-300000/=
23. Nur Mohammad Monir Gol Dighir Par, Cox’s Bazar. Tourism Business. BA. 29
unmarried. Age-29 Cell-01819109682. AI-240000/=
24. Md Abu Shama. Bahar Chara, Cox’s Bazar. Cell- Business. SSC. 40
Married. Age-40 01711317039. AI-120000/=
25. Firoz Ahmed Moni. Bahar Chara, Cox’s Bazar. Cell- Business. HSC. 38
Unmarried Age-38 01674241870. AI-120000/=
26. Ahmed Hossain Fakir Saikot Para, Cox’s Bazar. Land Business. Class V. 45
Married. Age-45 Cell-01816147952 AI-84000/=
27. Md Sohel, Baharchara, Cox’s Bazar. Cell- Business. SSC. 27
Married. Age-27 01815527363. AI-120000/=
28. Nayan Dey. Stadium Para, Cox’s Bazar. Service. SSC. 26
Unmarried Age-26 AI-96000/=
29. Mr Emdad Hossain. Khuruskul, Cox’s Bazar. Hotel boy. HSC. AI- 30
Married Age-30 102000/=
30. Rezaul Hoq Kalatoli, Cox’s Bazar Shop owner. Primary. 49
Married. Age-49 AI-120000/=

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 Annex VI

Participants in FGD in Control Variable (Monkhali Area)

Name of Participant Address Occupation Year of

Living
1. Bahadur Alom Monkhali, Ukhia. Cell-01811913485 Fisery Business 38
2. Nur Mohammad Monkhali, Ukhia. Agriculture 65
3. Sheikh Ahmed Monkhali, Ukhia. Shrimp fry 28
Collection
4. Mofidul Alom Monkhali, Ukhia. Agriculture 34
5.Nurul Kabir Monkhali, Ukhia. Cell-01811887952 Shrimp fry 27
Collection
6. Jahir Ahmed Monkhali, Ukhia. Cell-01813247630 Fisery Business 45
7. Abdul Hoq Monkhali, Ukhia. Cell-01815912587 Grocery 34
8.Haji Syed Ahmed Monkhali, Ukhia. Cell-01812608262 Agriculture 65

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 Annex VII
Residents’ attitudes towards 35 impact statement of tourism in Cox’s Bazar in percentages (%).

Tourism Statements 1 2 3 4 5 M SD
I. Social Impacts
1. Tourism has led to an increase of infrastructure for local 36.7 36.7 3.3 16.7 6.7 2.20 1.30
people.
2. Tourism development increases crime in Cox’s Bazar. 13.3 43.3 6.7 20.0 16.7 2.83 1.37
3. Tourism causes division of local community. 20.0 36.7 16.7 16.7 10.0 2.60 1.28
4. Our household standard of living is higher because of 50.0 46.7 - - 3.3 1.60 .81
the money that tourists spend here.
5. How advantageous are the impacts of tourism on your 36.7 36.7 13.3 3.3 10.0 2.13 1.25
family?
6. The quality of public services has improved due to more 16.7 30.0 6.7 23.3 23.3 3.07 1.48
tourism in my community.
7. Tourism gives benefits to a small group of people in the 36.7 43.3 6.7 6.7 6.7 2.03 1.16
area.
8. Overall, how advantageous are the impacts of tourism 23.3 53.3 3.3 20.0 - 2.20 1.03
on the social life of Cox’s Bazar?
II. Cultural Impacts
9. Tourism encourages a variety of cultural activities by 33.3 43.3 3.3 13.3 6.7 2.17 1.23
the local population (e.g., crafts, arts, music).
10. Tourism has brought change in local traditional life 40.0 50.0 10.0 - - 1.80 .89
style.
III. Economic Impacts
11. How advantageous are the impacts of tourism on the 43.3 46.7 6.7 3.3 - 1.70 .75
Cox’s Bazar economy?
12. I have more money because of tourism in Cox’s 43.3 23.3 3.3 23.3 6.7 2.27 1.41
Bazar.
13. How advantageous are the impacts of tourism on 30.0 66.7 3.3 - - 1.73 .52
employment?
14. Non-local-owned businesses are beneficial for the 46.7 30.0 10.0 13.3 - 1.90 1.06
area’s tourist industry.
15. Tourism creates more jobs for foreigners than for local 16.7 3.3 3.3 13.3 63.3 4.03 1.54
people in the region.
16. Tourism attracts more investment in Cox’s Bazar. 90.0 10.0 - - - 1.10 .31
17. There should be no government incentives for tourism 20.0 26.7 3.3 30.0 20.0 3.03 1.50
development.
18. Prices of many goods and services in the area have 83.3 16.7 - - - 1.17 .38
increased because of tourism.
19. There should be a specific tax on tourists. 30.0 20.0 6.7 23.3 20.0 2.83 1.58
20. Tourism development increases property prices (e.g., 100.0 - - - - 1.00 .00
land).
21. Most of the money earned from tourism ends up going 60.0 16.7 3.3 20.0 - 1.83 1.21
to out of the local companies
22. Overall, how advantageous are the impacts of tourism 26.7 60.0 3.3 3.3 6.7 2.03 1.03
on Bangladesh government’s income?
IV. Environmental Impacts
23. Tourism produces long-term negative effects on the 36.7 36.7 3.3 20.0 3.3 2.17 1.23
environment.
24. Tourism provides an incentive for the conservation / 6.7 36.7 6.7 23.3 26.7 3.27 1.39
restoration of natural resources.

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25. The construction of hotels and other tourist facilities 50.0 26.7 6.7 13.3 3.3 1.93 1.20
has destroyed the natural environment in the region.
26. Tourism development increases the traffic problems. 53.3 46.7 - - - 1.47 .51
27. This community should control tourism development. 50.0 30.0 - 10.0 10.0 2.00 1.36
28. Overall, how advantageous are the impacts of tourism 3.3 43.3 10.0 23.3 20.0 3.13 1.28
on the environment?
V. Overall Impacts
29. Overall, the benefits of tourism are greater than the 36.7 53.3 3.3 6.7 - 1.80 .81
costs to the people of the area.
30. Tourism activities/services should have a user fee 36.7 26.7 - 26.7 10.0 2.47 1.48
system.
31. Tourism development increases the number of 20.0 43.3 6.7 26.7 3.3 2.50 1.20
recreational opportunities for local residents.
32. We should take steps to restrict / control tourism 46.7 26.7 10.0 - 16.7 2.23 1.55
development in Cox’s Bazar.
33. Strict laws are needed to protect the environment. 86.7 13.3 - - - 1.13 .35
34. I am proud to live in a place (Cox’s Bazar) that 80.0 16.7 - 3.3 - 1.27 .64
provides tourism opportunities.
35. Overall, the benefits of tourism are greater than the 50.0 40.0 - 6.7 3.3 1.73 1.01
costs to Cox’s Bazar as a whole.
Note: For statements 5, 8, 11, 13, 22 and 28, the scale ranged from 1 (very advantageous) to 5 (very
disadvantageous), and for the remainder from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly dis-agree). M for Median &
SD for Standard Deviation.

78